Article Courtesy: news.com.au | Originally Published: October 10, 2016 | Please click here for original article.
DRONES will be used at West Australian beaches in a three-month trial to monitor shark activity and potentially spot other dangers such as rips and schools of bait fish, which attract the predators.
Under the plan, $88,000 will be provided for four small drones equipped with a high-definition camera to stream live pictures back to Surf Life Saving WA operators at some metropolitan and regional beaches.
Fisheries Minister Joe Francis said the trial was part of the state government’s $33 million Shark Hazard Mitigation strategy.
“Drone technology has advanced significantly in recent years and it makes sense to test if it can be used effectively to make our beaches safer,” he said on Sunday.
“The trial will assess whether this eye in the sky technology can add value to the beach surveillance currently provided by helicopter and beach patrols.” Mr Francis said SLSWA would test the technology’s capability against environmental factors, such as weather conditions and beach geography, and would be flown at beach events such as surf carnivals.
The trial will run from November to January, and future funding will depend on the results.
Meanwhile, the opposition has made an election promise for a $200,000 subsidy scheme for personal shark deterrent devices.
Labor leader Mark McGowan said under the proposed trial, 1000 devices such as Shark Shield would be available with a $200 state government subsidy.
“Allowing people to take individual protective measures, I think, has to be the future,” he told reporters.
Mr McGowan said drones could be trialled at populated beaches but were no use at remote beaches where people surfed.
He was supported by Rick Gerring, whose 29-year-old brother Ben was fatally mauled by a shark at Falcon on May 31, leaving behind his pregnant fiancee. “Hopefully with the discussions of people talking to each other about these devices then more people will take them up and we can protect more surfers and divers and kite surfers and anyone else who’s away from the shoreline and in remote areas which can’t be patrolled,” Mr Gerring said.
“I’m here to protect people … I don’t think the government has done enough.” Mr Gerring said he had been surfing with a device since his brother’s death and felt safer.
“I know that he wouldn’t want people being scared of the ocean and he’d want people out there enjoying what he loved,” he said.
“Anything (I can do) to help save another life and another family going through what we’re going through still then my job’s done.” There have been 23 shark-related deaths in WA in the past 100 years, with 14 fatalities since 2000.
The most recent was 60-year-old university lecturer Doreen Ann Collyer, who was mauled while diving with a friend about one kilometre off Mindarie on June 5. The state government’s shark strategy includes aerial and beach patrols, monitoring and tagging, beach enclosures, and research into deterrents and shark behaviour.
