NSW Adds $34m To Shark Mitigation Program As Drones, Nets & AI Expand Along Coastline

New South Wales is adding another $34 million to its shark mitigation program, taking total spend to roughly $120 million. The emphasis is still drones, more of them now, spread across around 70 beaches along the coastline.

Those beaches will have year-round coverage, with all Sydney beaches included from July 1. The current shark deterrent system already runs on a mix of drone surveillance, shark nets, acoustic receivers, and smart drumlines. This new funding doesn’t really change the structure, it just extends it, with more coverage. 

The announcement follows a serious shark attack at Coogee Beach on 13 June, where a woman swimming between the flags was hit by a suspected Great White and later had her arm amputated. It’s difficult to imagine the incident not playing some role in shaping the urgency around the rollout, even if it wasn’t the sole catalyst.

NSW Premier Chris Minns told the ABC the expansion would be “world leading”, prioritising high-use areas, with the approach framed around risk reduction and observation rather than any move toward culling.

Surf Life Saving NSW estimates the program will now involve hundreds of thousands of drone flights annually, with remote piloting used to cover long stretches of coast. The intention is to feed detections directly into patrol operations, shortening the gap between sighting and response.

Still, SLS NSW CEO Steve Pearce said: “Even with the greatest technology and expanded presence of drones, we cannot prevent all shark interactions, however this funding will allow the development of a safety program that will give the greatest opportunity to prevent these from occurring.”

Shark nets remain in place at selected beaches. They are still controversial and criticised by marine scientists and animal welfare groups for bycatch and limited effectiveness, but they continue regardless. AI is also planned to replace human piloting by the end of the year, consistent with the general direction of things, aimed at improving detection accuracy and reducing the limits of human interpretation in drone footage. 

Obviously, this isn’t what many have called for in terms of intervention. Parts of the community continue to argue for Gee Dubs to be removed from the protected species list, where they’ve been legally protected since 1999. One idea, in that camp, is culling the larger animals and leaving them just offshore, based on the belief it reduces encounters and sends a kind of warning signal through the population.

Where do you sit? Cull or protect?

Plenty of discussion to come. We’ve got shark week planned soon, hearing from experts and general opinionated voices across the spectrum, all over the site, including a great shark debate to wrap it up.