{"id":39835,"date":"2026-06-28T00:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T00:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/39835\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T00:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T00:52:16","slug":"nsw-shark-spotting-drone-program-expanded-after-coogee-beach-shark-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/39835\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW shark-spotting drone program expanded after Coogee Beach shark attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shark-spotting drones will provide year-round coverage at about 70 beaches along the NSW coast as part of an expanded surveillance program announced after a Sydney mother was attacked by a suspected white shark.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The state government on Sunday announced it would allocate an additional $34 million for shark-spotting drones, providing coverage at every ocean beach from Palm Beach to Cronulla 365 days of the year.<\/p>\n

Conducted by Surf Life Saving NSW, the monitoring will prioritise beaches with a high number of swimmers and surfers, where shark incidents have become more frequent.<\/p>\n

Expanded regional operations along the NSW coast will for the first time include flights every weekend throughout the year, and daily flights from December 1 to April 30.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The busiest beaches will be proritised under the surveillance program. (ABC News: Nick Dole)<\/p>\n

It brings the total investment in the state government’s Shark Mitigation Program to $120 million over the next two years.<\/p>\n

The program also includes trials of two new artificial intelligence shark detection systems over the coming summer.<\/p>\n

‘More eyes in the sky’<\/p>\n

NSW Premier Chris Minns said the surveillance would help keep beachgoers safe.<\/p>\n

Shark attack victim on road to recovery<\/a><\/p>\n

The 34-year-old’s brother said she was awake, speaking with loved ones and her medical team and “remembers the whole event in detail”.<\/p>\n

“While no-one can ever promise no shark interactions, this investment is about putting more eyes in the sky so we can spot sharks earlier and give people a clear heads-up when they’re in the water,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“More drones in the air means we’re getting a better picture of what’s happening offshore and it means we’ll get better at seeing them.”<\/p>\n

It comes two weeks after Leah Stewart was critically injured in a suspected white shark attack while she was swimming between the flags at Coogee Beach.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old received first aid at the scene and underwent surgery to remove her arm.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Leah Stewart was swimming between the flags at Coogee Beach when she was bitten by a suspected white shark. (Supplied: Gofundme)<\/p>\n

There were no drone patrols at Coogee Beach at the time due to the popular swimming spot’s proximity to Sydney Airport’s flight path.<\/p>\n

Ms Stewart was woken from an induced coma last week, with Joshua Stewart saying his sister was in a stable condition and had been reunited with her daughter.<\/p>\n

“Leah has shown she is so strong, fighting to come back to her daughter August,” he said in a statement to an online fundraiser that has collected more than $520,000 in donations for the family.<\/p>\n

“For us this feels like a miracle and is everything so many of us have hoped and prayed for.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Drones will monitor waters from Palm Beach to Cronulla. (ABC News: Tony Ibrahim)<\/p>\n

Surf Life Saving NSW CEO Steve Pearce said the program was the “largest ever funding commitment to shark management in Australia”.<\/p>\n

“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,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“The SLS NSW Shark UAV surveillance program has proven to be an extremely effective component of the NSW Shark Management Program, having this year alone identified and prevented over 2000 sharks interacting with swimmers and surfers, and conducting over 100,000 flights.”<\/p>\n

The expanded program comes into effect on July 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shark-spotting drones will provide year-round coverage at about 70 beaches along the NSW coast as part of an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1131,1132,22,21,4508,28620,1557,32269,29048,16149,596,32272,1098,462,11474,32277,30492,32274,32270,32276,4500,1981,32275,32278,1975,4975,32271,13127,1324,32273],"class_list":["post-39835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-beach-safety","tag-casa","tag-chris-minns","tag-coogee-beach-shark-attack","tag-leah-stewart","tag-northern-beaches","tag-nsw","tag-nsw-beach","tag-nsw-government","tag-nsw-news","tag-nsw-politics","tag-patrolled-beach","tag-shark-drones","tag-shark-incident","tag-shark-surveilance","tag-shark-tagging","tag-shark-spotting-drones","tag-sharks","tag-sharksmart","tag-steve-pearce","tag-surf-life-saving-nsw","tag-surfing-nsw","tag-sydney-beach","tag-sydney-harbour","tag-sydney-news","tag-sydney-surf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}