NSW beaches to get dawn-to-dusk drone patrols in $34m anti-shark program

The New South Wales government has announced a $34 million program to expand shark-spotting drone patrols at 70 beaches across the state, with year-round flights from dawn to dusk beginning July 1.

Premier Chris Minns said the initiative aims to restore confidence among beachgoers following a series of shark sightings and attacks, including a great white shark attack on Sydney mother Leah Stewart at Coogee beach earlier this month. "While no one can ever promise no shark interactions, this investment is about putting more eyes in the sky so we can spot sharks earlier and give people a clear heads-up when they're in the water," Minns said on Sunday.

The 70 beaches covered year-round include all 38 of Sydney's ocean beaches and 32 others across the state. The program also promises enhanced drone monitoring at regional beaches, with daily flights from December 1 to April 30, weekend flights throughout the year, and extended daily flight hours.

Surf Life Saving NSW, which already operates drone surveillance including a school holiday program, will carry out the expanded coverage. CEO Steve Pearce noted that drones are already an "extremely effective component" of the state's shark management program, having identified and prevented over 2,000 shark interactions with swimmers and surfers this year alone, while conducting more than 100,000 flights.

The funding includes trials of new artificial intelligence shark detection systems over the summer, which officials hope will pave the way for automated flights. University of Sydney shark policy expert Associate Professor Christopher Pepin-Neff called the AI plans "ambitious and bold" but urged realism about drone capabilities. "With more drones in the air, that is going to mean sharks are discussed a lot more across Australian beaches," they said. "We need to treat the beach like the bush. It's the wild."

While coverage will not extend to every beach, at least one beach in each coastal local government area will benefit, focusing on those with the highest numbers of swimmers and surfers. In Sydney, year-round drone monitoring will expand from 26 to all 38 ocean beaches, from Palm Beach to Cronulla. Two SharkSmart listening stations in Sydney Harbour will alert swimmers to tagged sharks.

Following multiple attacks in the past 12 months, some fatal, Premier Minns has resisted calls for a shark cull, including great white sharks, which are a protected species. "The distances these [white] sharks travel are massive," Minns told Sky News. "It's not like we can knock a few off and send a message to the rest of them." Pepin-Neff agreed, noting that white sharks are pelagic and travel alone, making culling ineffective. However, Minns noted that bull sharks, which are not protected, present a different situation, and the government is "looking at all of those measures," including auditing shark numbers in Sydney Harbour. Pepin-Neff countered that there is "zero evidence to support shark culls as a way to make beaches safer."