Some 45 potential new shark spotters met on the weekend, with a view to starting a regular patrol on the Ballina to Lennox Head coastline.
The announcement comes hot on the heels of a feasibility study announced last week for a shark spotting program at Byron Bay’s Wategos Beach.
Modelled on the hugely successful program pioneered at South Africa’s sharky Cape Town Beach, the pilot Ballina Shark Watch program will also make use of drones to keep an eye from the sky.
Shark Watch spokesman Andrew Nieuwenhof said the group was also hoping to have input from the local boardriding group LeBa, although other commitments had prevented members from attending Sunday’s meeting.
Mr Nieuwenhof said that volunteers so far included ‘families, young people, retirees, among others, all offering to help.’
He said the crew would consist of four people, including a spotter with binoculars, a drone operator and someone monitoring an iPad connected to the drone, plus a person on the beach itself.
The beach-based volunteers will receive basic first aid training as well as special training in the area of dealing with shark attack victims.
Once this happens, and a licensed drone operator can be found to work with, Mr Nieuwenhof said the operation could commence.
But he added that more people would be needed as volunteers and he is also on the lookout for sponsors.
‘It was so heartening to see that a grassroots community supported organisation can get off the ground in our area with the express purpose of protecting the beach going public,’ he told ABC radio.
Have I missed something here? In the sixties lifeguards from the Byron SLC kept a watch for sharks. Lifesaving clubs at other towns did too. If they or anyone else spotted a fin they would clear the water with a loudspeaker – in those days people had the sense to do as they were told. They would then row out and see if it was as shark or a dolphin, and announce if it was the former so people could go back in. If it was a shark they would monitor the beach and make sure no-one went in until they were sure it was not in the vicinity. I can imagine power boats and now drones would make the process a bit easier but is thisstill not part of the role of SLCs?
Yes Petrus, You would think that looking out for swimmers and surfers safety from drowning and sharks by lifesavers during patrol times is a no brainner ! Do they do it ?
That is the debate we are having in Lifeguard circles at the moment.As lifesavers if we are serious about patrolling we need to be in modern Lifeguard Towers spaced along the beach and on headlands with constant surveillance by trained spotters.With our rapid response craft,4 wheel drive’s,communications and advanced first aid we can minimise response times thereby maximising the chance of survival !
Thanks for the response and clarification Ken. Lets hope the Lifesavers can contribute to keeping our beaches “meal free” and keep up the good work.
Most shark attach if not all in Ballina aeria were at surfers. It should be up to them to set up a team of each volunteers as far as using drones is concern, CASA regulation restricts flying drones within a radius of 5km from the airfields. And it is quite correct. After all we do not want any accidents of drones colliding with RPT traffick (jstar, virgin etc)