{"id":436983,"date":"2026-01-25T18:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T18:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/436983\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T18:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T18:15:13","slug":"bull-shark-tagging-and-extra-drones-for-nsw-beaches-following-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/436983\/","title":{"rendered":"Bull shark tagging and extra drones for NSW beaches following attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beachgoers along the NSW coast and Sydney Harbour can expect to see more drones in the sky after a $4.2 million investment into the state’s shark management program was announced in the wake of four shark attacks, one of them fatal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The additional funding will be used for surveillance, bull shark tagging and shark safety education.<\/p>\n

Drones will be used to spot sharks and alert swimmers across 80 beaches until the end of the April school holidays \u2014 an increase from 50.<\/p>\n

\"Beachgoers<\/p>\n

There are many popular spots to swim at throughout Sydney’s harbour. (ABC News: Patrick Thomas)<\/p>\n

Surf Life Saving NSW CEO Steve Pearce said the semi-autonomous drones would surveil areas up and down the NSW coast, amounting to an additional 35,000 hours of flight time.<\/p>\n

“We will be deploying drones that can fly in high winds up to 50 kilometres an hour \u2014 [they are] all-weather drones, have sirens and speakers, and can fly up to 2km,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The beauty of having the drones in the air is that once we identify a shark, we’ll monitor that shark, close the beach temporarily, wait for that danger to have passed, then we’ll give the orders to re-open the beach.<\/p>\n

“This uplift in funding for Surf Life Saving NSW makes the drone sharks surveillance program not only the largest one within the southern hemisphere, but arguably probably worldwide.”<\/p>\n

Mr Pearce said it meant people could enjoy swimming during the long weekend without beaches being shut for long periods of time.<\/p>\n

\"Life<\/p>\n

The drone technology will assist lifesavers in keeping beachgoers safe. (ABC News: Nick Dole)<\/p>\n

Minister for Agriculture Tara Moriarty said the drones would not operate during the riskiest times to swim, at dawn and dusk, when shark activity was most common.<\/p>\n

“This is not a perfect program. It’s never going to be a silver bullet,” she said.<\/p>\n

“There are also challenges with what the drones can see when the light is different, so putting drones up later in the day can mean that they won’t be able to spot what they need to spot in order to provide the warning.”<\/p>\n

\"Front-on<\/p>\n

Bull sharks are known to frequent Sydney Harbour. (iNaturalist: Niall McCarty<\/a>, Bull shark<\/a>, CC BY-NC 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Targeted bull shark tagging<\/p>\n

Authorities believe it was a bull shark that bit 12-year-old Nico Antic,<\/a> who died from his injuries on Saturday, almost a week after he was attacked.<\/p>\n

He had been jumping off a rock ledge near Shark Beach at Vaucluse.<\/p>\n

Mr Pearce paid tribute to the 12-year-old nipper.<\/p>\n

“Nico was a wonderful lifesaver, both Bondi and North Bondi surf lifesaving clubs are putting their arms around the family and looking after the family,” he said.\"A<\/p>\n

Twelve-year-old Nico Antic died almost one week after being bitten by a shark at Vaucluse. (ABC News: Isobel Roe)<\/p>\n

Part of the funding will go towards specifically catching and tagging bull sharks in Sydney Harbour to monitor their movements in the area.<\/p>\n

Sharks seek sea change as water temperature rises<\/a><\/p>\n

Several shark species are on the move as waters warm along Australia\u2019s east coast. Here’s how climate change is affecting the range of three major species.<\/p>\n

“For a number of reasons it’s easier to tag them and to catch them in Sydney Harbour, but I have asked the department to look at whether we can be doing that in the oceans as well,” Ms Moriarty said.<\/p>\n

It builds upon existing shark tagging operations which Marcel Green, who leads the NSW Department of Primary Industries shark program, said had processed more than 2,500 sharks in NSW, but only 250 bull sharks.<\/p>\n

“This targeted tagging will be about going out there at night, setting some lines, catching some bull sharks in particular and really ramping up that number of sharks [tagged],” he said.<\/p>\n

Beachgoers can use the SharkSmart app to track the movements of tagged sharks.<\/p>\n

The state government will also install shark listening devices at Sydney Harbour, which are already in place at ocean beaches.<\/p>\n

“It [the shark] swims within 500m of a listening station, then you get the alert to your phone because you’ve got the SharkSmart app,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Beachgoers<\/p>\n

More drones will be used at NSW beaches to monitor shark activity. (ABC News: Patrick Thomas)<\/p>\n

Shark safety education<\/p>\n

Ms Moriarty said the extra funding would also be used to increase shark safety awareness.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of interest from the community about learning more about shark movements, the risks of shark attacks and when it’s more risky for shark attacks in our waters following the horrific week we’ve had,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We will be investing in more education, getting out to beaches, having the experts talk to people about when it is more risky to swim.”<\/p>\n

It comes as lifesavers and lifeguards gear up for one of the busiest days of the year \u2014 Australia Day.<\/p>\n

Ms Moriarty said if beaches were closed because of a shark, “please do not swim, do not surf, please leave the beach”.<\/p>\n

\"Minister<\/p>\n

Ms Moriarty urged people to stay safe on Australia Day. (ABC News: Nick Dole)<\/p>\n

Mr Pearce expects tens of thousands of people to flock to the beach on Sunday and Monday.<\/p>\n

“This weekend essentially is like a grand final weekend for surf lifesaving,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We will have 1,000 volunteer lifesavers supported by life guards. All 129 surf clubs will be mobilised.<\/p>\n

“We know during public holidays \u2014 and particularly Australia Day \u2014 people are three times more likely to drown.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beachgoers along the NSW coast and Sydney Harbour can expect to see more drones in the sky after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,201930,27929,176039,111387,55020,44,2733,2269,24743,1042,168421,93284,670,143124,27632,222075],"class_list":["post-436983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-day","tag-beaches","tag-bull-shark","tag-detection","tag-drone","tag-news","tag-nsw","tag-shark","tag-shark-attacks","tag-sharks","tag-surf-lifesaving","tag-surveillance","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-harbour","tag-tagging","tag-vaucluse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}