{"slug": "nsw-expands-drone-patrols-for-shark-detection", "title": "NSW Expands Drone Patrols for Shark Detection", "summary": "The New South Wales government will invest an additional A$34 million in shark-surveillance measures, expanding drone patrols to about 70 beaches with year-round coverage and trialling two AI detection systems over summer, aiming for autonomous drone operations. The total shark-protection spending over two years reaches A$120 million.", "body_md": "Editorial analysis: Field deployments of AI-capable drones are an important test for real-time computer-vision pipelines, edge compute, and labelled marine datasets that practitioners will need to operationalise at scale. SMH reports the NSW government will invest an extra A$34 million in shark-surveillance measures, bringing total shark-protection spending to A$120 million over two years (SMH). SBS reports the expansion will place drone patrols at **72 beaches** with year-round coverage, and SMH and WAToday describe the coverage as about **70 beaches** with drones operating dawn-to-dusk in winter and extended hours in summer. SMH reports two AI detection systems will be trialled over summer, and SMH describes a long-term aim for autonomous drones to operate daily on NSW beaches. SBS quotes Premier Chris Minns: \"No one can promise a shark mitigation program that can guarantee that there will be zero encounters with sharks.\"", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nsw-expands-drone-patrols-for-shark-detection", "canonical_source": "https://letsdatascience.com/news/nsw-expands-drone-patrols-for-shark-detection-0af950b9", "published_at": "2026-06-28 05:18:50+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-28 06:10:11.273937+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["computer-vision", "artificial-intelligence", "autonomous-vehicles", "ai-products", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["NSW government", "Chris Minns", "SMH", "SBS", "WAToday"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nsw-expands-drone-patrols-for-shark-detection", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nsw-expands-drone-patrols-for-shark-detection.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nsw-expands-drone-patrols-for-shark-detection.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nsw-expands-drone-patrols-for-shark-detection.jsonld"}}