Smart technology is keeping our beaches safe from dangerous sharks
The shark highway patrol has an arsenal of smart technology, including a SharkSmart app and drones, to keep our NSW beaches safe from the ocean’s apex predators.
NSW
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Hundreds of dangerous sharks are being tracked off the coast of NSW as thousands of holidaymakers flock to the state’s beaches, with ocean patrollers taking an average of 19 minutes to reach any of the animals caught in the state’s coastal defences.
Known as the shark highway patrol, the trackers sweep the ocean for any danger that might lurk below the surface, catching, tagging and tracking sharks using the state government’s Shark-Management-Alert-in-Real-Time (SMART) drumlines.
The technology caught 502 “target sharks” – those that are most dangerous to humans – across NSW beaches in the 12 months to July last year, including 349 great whites, 124 tiger sharks and 29 bull sharks.
“Once you’ve caught a shark on the SMART drumline and it’s tagged and released, every time the animal swims within 500 metres of one of the 37 listening stations along the coast it picks up the signal from the shark’s acoustic tag sending an alert to the SharkSmart app, letting the community know where the sharks are,” Department of Primary Industries shark program leader, Marcel Green, said.
The largest number of sharks were caught between Forster and Evans Head on the mid-north coast.
This area was also where the most tagged sharks were detected by the listening stations.
Once tagged and relocated 1km offshore, the sharks move away from the coast for an average of 74 days before they are detected again, the department has found.
While the SMART drumlines cause less damage to marine life than shark nets, their efficacy as a shark deterrent is still being debated.
In August last year surfer Toby Begg, 44, lost a leg during an attack by a 4m great white shark at Lighthouse Beach in Port Macquarie, where there were two SMART drumlines installed.
For Mr Green there is no silver bullet when it comes to shark deterrents, arguing it is a combination of technologies and constant innovation that makes the program effective.
“We’re doing as much as we possibly can to increase protection for beachgoers while also increasing the survivorship and lack of impact on other marine life,” he said
“SMART drumlines have a much higher release and survival rate.
“For nets the release and survival rate is around 40 per cent, while for the drumlines it’s closer to 90 per cent.”
The Daily Telegraph joined the patrol out on the water to get an inside look at at the world’s largest shark mitigation system.
While the SMART drumline itself looks like a simple hook with bait connected to a buoy floating on top of the water, it is a critical part of an advanced tagging system.
Mr Green explains a mullet is used as bait designed to attract the three “target” sharks.
After an animal is hooked an alert goes out to a DPI contractor who immediately responds.
Target sharks are then tagged with GPS satellite and acoustic tracking devices and monitored via satellites and listening stations.
The sharks are also subjected to an oral and an anal swab to gather as much biological data about the animal as possible. Non-target animals are immediately released on the spot, while target sharks are taken further out to sea and released.
The state’s shark deterrence program is one of the most expensive in the world, costing taxpayers nearly $21.4 million a year.
Contractors are always on call and given a maximum of 30 minutes to respond to alerts that potentially dangerous sharks have been caught on one of the state’s 305 SMART drumlines. Contractors also monitor shark nets installed along 51 beaches along the state’s coast, though these are only checked every three days.
The measures are part of a shark management strategy which also includes drones and helicopter surveillance
In August this year Premier Chris Minns defied coastal council requests to scrap controversial shark nets along some of the state’s most popular beaches, including Bondi.
The nets, which are used between September and April, have created tension among coastal communities and are strongly opposed by environmental groups due to the death toll of marine life such as dolphins and turtles, which get entangled in the mesh.
Yet with the government conceding it would consider the viability of removing shark nets in the future, all eyes will be on how effective new technologies such as smart drumlines, drones and listening stations are at mitigating shark-related incidents this summer.
Premier Chris Minns said last year he was not confident the new technology was a suitable replacement for the shark nets.
“We’re not in a position at the moment where we can say … that these new technologies are as good a replacement as shark nets for Sydney beaches,” he said.
Yet Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty said the increase in drumlines and drone surveillance along the state’s coast was working.
“The data shows us SMART drumlines and drones are effective at reducing shark interactions, and beachgoers can further reduce their risk of an encounter by downloading the SharkSmart app,” she said.
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