Shark drones ready for summer surveillance
Surf Life Saving NSW has had over 2,500 applications for UAV pilot roles and has issued about 200 contracts already to casual pilots, following the NSW Government’s $34 million expansion of its drone surveillance program. Over 100 pilots are needed for the Beaches to allow for split shifts in summer.
The government’s shark management program increased from $21 million a year to $120 million over two years. The 2026/27 program includes 51 shark nets, 305 SMART drumlines, trauma kits and 37 tagged shark listening stations, and two in Sydney Harbour.
The expansion includes surveillance of 97 beaches with at least one drone at every local government area, with 72 beaches covered 365 days from dawn to dusk, including all Northern Beaches.
Avalon Beach Surf Life Saving Club hosted a shark management information session on 20 September for the community.
Marine ecologist Lawrence Chlebeck from Humane World for Animals attended the event and told PL that the expansion of the drone program gives NSW ‘the most cutting-edge, comprehensive shark bite risk mitigation program in the world.’
“But it is important to remember that there is no silver bullet, and it is not perfect,” Mr Chlebeck said. “Shark culling nets from the 1930s are still used, and struggling, dead and decomposing animals in the nets risk attracting sharks and stimulating feeding behaviour.
“The clear next step is to end the use of nets and redirect that funding into more drone coverage, training and development – a move that benefits public safety and the marine environment,” he added.
James Bassam, chief remote pilot at Surf Life Saving NSW, spoke about the UAV surveillance program at the Avalon session.
Some beaches have drone pilots on site, whereas some use Drone in a Box Trailers (two on the Beaches) and are operated remotely from a centre in Belrose, Mr Bassam explained.
Drones patrol twice an hour at each operational site, generally below 400 feet and along the surf break, and all pilots have radio contact with lifeguards/lifesavers.
Mr Bassam said that in NSW in July/August, 49,000 drone flights travelled 343,000km over 15,000 hours, spotting over 1,200 sharks, resulting in over 350 countermeasures.
Mr Chlebeck said increased shark sightings ‘should be expected’ with the expanded program.
“We’ve got more eyes on the water now than ever, it only makes sense we’d see more sharks” Mr Chlebeck said. “Seeing more sharks does not mean there are more sharks, and we need to carefully manage expectations around what these increased sightings mean.
“The drones will spot a lot of sharks this summer – sharks that have always been there, just not spotted,” he added.
Marcel Green, NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s shark program manager also spoke and said that shark incidents were rising, and the SharkSmart app had been downloaded over 400,000 times.
In the last century there was an average of 1.5 shark incidents (mauling and deaths) annually. From 2001 to 2025 this increased to 7.5 incidents per year. It peaked at 18 in 2020, 17 in 2009, 16 in 2015, and there have been 11 incidents so far in 2026.
In the early 1900s, most encounters were in estuaries and fatal. After 1930 most encounters involved white sharks on beaches, with a 25% fatality rate.
Mr Green said that the four incidents within 36 hours in January this year were ‘unprecedented incidents in unique circumstances.’ He was referring to incidents in Dee Why, North Steyne, Sydney Harbour, and the north coast.
