Twice as effective as nets: shark-spotting drones to become ‘permanent fixture’ on Queensland beaches | Sharks

Queensland will deploy shark-detecting drones to more beaches after a major study found drones detected more than twice the number of sharks caught in adjacent nets.

But while drones have become a “permanent fixture” of the state’s shark control operations, the Department for Primary Industries said Queensland would continue to rely on “traditional measures such as nets and drum lines” despite evidence of their deadly effects on dolphins, whales, turtles and dugongs.

Surf Life Saving Queensland’s chief remote pilot Rob Adsett said drones were a “really good surveillance tool” that gave lifeguards a better view of everything on the beach. Drones have been used to collect data on beach conditions and manage risks associated with sharks; additional benefits such as assisting with search and rescue efforts were also provided.

He said drone operations run parallel to life-saving services. “So we will start our patrols at the beginning of the day when they put up the flags. We will fly until noon, and this is mainly due to the weather conditions.”

The ability to see and track sharks and suspected sharks in real time means lifeguards can manage safety risks without being “overly cautious,” Adsett said.

“If there had been a shark report before, we might have closed the beach for an hour, but then we realized there were no sharks.”

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According to the report, drones were an effective shark control measure that offered additional safety advantages over shark nets. Queensland government reportHe inspected 10 beaches for four years.

People were able to be evacuated from the water after large sharks were detected by drone and posed a risk to the public. The report stated that drones also provide additional benefits, helping rescue swimmers from rip currents and searching for missing people.

Shark nets had a significantly higher environmental impact, with 123 non-target animals (excluding non-target sharks) caught in nets at 10 beaches during the trial period.

The so-called bycatch included 13 dolphins, eight whales, 45 turtles, two dugongs, dozens of stingrays and other fish, including many species protected under federal environmental laws. About half of them died during the recapture.

In May, Crisafulli’s government announced it would expand the use of shark nets; It maintained this stance even though more than a dozen whales had become entangled in recent months. The state is currently deploying 27 nets and 383 drum lines. catch and kill seven target shark species.

The trial, which ran from 2020 to 2024, was part of the state government’s research commitment to compare non-lethal alternatives to traditional shark control measures.

676 sharks were sighted by drones during the trial; 190 of these were sharks larger than 2 meters; this number was significantly higher than those caught on Shark Control Program rigs 284 and 133, respectively.

“Drones provide high-resolution aerial imagery of a large ocean, allowing sharks to be detected in real time, while having a negligible impact on the environment and non-target species,” the report said.

Macquarie University marine ecologist Prof Robert Harcourt said the results were “no surprise” and were similar to those found in New South Wales.

“If you have clean water and beaches, drones are very effective at detecting sharks and other animals.”

“You can’t block anything coming using drones, but you can see what’s out there and tell people to get out of the water, which means no one gets hurt.

“The nets are there for fishing, not for protecting the beach,” he said.

Harcourt said it was good that Queensland was trialling drones as a shark management tool, and it would be even better if the state considered switching to “smart drum lines” where animals are caught, tagged and released instead of killer nets.

Prof Charlie Huveneers, who leads the Southern Shark Ecology Group at Flinders University, said while there was no “magic solution” that could eliminate all shark bite risk, the study reaffirmed the scientific literature that drones should be part of the prevention toolbox.

“Drones are not lethal to targeted or bycatch species and can detect sharks that force humans out of water, but are not suitable in all conditions (e.g. high winds, rain, low water visibility).”

A Department for Primary Industries spokesman said the use of shark-detecting drones would be increased from 10 to 20 under the shark management plan from 2025 to 2029, “becoming a permanent fixture of Shark Control Program operations, complementing traditional measures such as nets and drum lines”.

“Although drones are a good support of the program, they cannot currently replace essential program equipment such as drum lines and nets,” the spokesman said.

Australian research The report, published last year on 196 unprovoked shark incidents, found no differences between unprovoked human-shark interactions at netted and unnetted beaches since the 2000s.