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.
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