World’s Most Expensive Drone Program Under Fire After Surfer Narrowly escapes Great White Shark

“I was out there between 9-10am and didn’t see the drone make a pass once."

Yeah, well, they’re out there, the ol Great White shark. And the double-whammy of birds in the sky, inexpensive enough so half the city has ‘em, and the obvious surge in the population after thirty years of protection, has given pretty much everyone who surfs in Sydney the heebie jeebies about Great Whites, I think it’s fair to say. 

One month ago, you’ll remember, the NSW government announced drone surveillance across 70 beaches at a cost of $34 million, the most expensive shark spotting operation in the world, the whole program costing 120 mill.

The idea to fliy fleets of drones was a response to the mauling of Sydney mother Leah Stewart by a Great White off Coogee, the death of surfer Mercury Psillakis the previous September, a kid killed by a bull shark and a raft of other hits, encounters, incidents, whatever you wanna call em.

As I wrote one year ago, whenever I’m with the it’s-their-ocean crowd, I tell ’em: you gotta understand. This is only the beginning. In a generation nobody will want their kids paddling out into the blue when fatal attacks by Great Whites become a weekly sideshow and not, as in the case recently, every two or three months.

And as I wrote one month ago, the effect of the drone program will be to just how many sharks are kicking around and, hence, expect regular evacuations, beach closures etc.

And here we are.

Tom Bawdy writes: “Is the new drone program just giving us a false sense of security whilst simultaneously spotting Sharks that have always been there and drumming up unnecessary fear? I have never been more spooked surfing in Sydney.  Even nervous to sign the kids back up to nippers this year.”

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Bodyboarder surfing Curl Curl, just north of Manly there, real close to the city, a joint supposedly patrolled by drones, gets checked by a 12-foot Great White.

“It got within a metre of me,” boog Luke Petersen told the Murdoch Press.

“I tried not to flap around too much and I told another guy I was surfing next to. He saw it also and we both were able to catch a little wave in. Then I just ran up the beach whistling out to all the other surfers to come in to shore.”

Petersen warned the other surfers about the Great White but says the shark alarm wasn’t sounded for another hour.

“The response from authorities was far too slow,” he said. “I was out there between 9-10am and didn’t see the drone make a pass once. I surf every day and to be honest I haven’t seen the drones patrolling all that much at Curl Curl.”

In contrast, a few headlands over at Avalon, a privately owned drone was used to warn a lone surfer about a nearby Great White, the shredder beaching himself to safety.

You like the drones?

I like ’em a hell of a lot and feel pretty comfortable when that lil red and yella tent is set up on the beach and the four-roter copter is doin’ the rounds.

Maybe they miss a few, maybe they don’t.

Either way, better than SharkBanz and apps displaying wearabouts of tagged sharks, I think safe to say.