Drone captures great white shark within meters of swimmers

A pilot flying his drone over a popular New South Wales beach in Australia managed to spot a great white shark swimming within meters of two swimmers oblivious to the danger lurking nearby. Pilot Cameron Grace was flying his DJI Spark while on holiday from Sydney.

Drone pilot Cameron, 17, spotted the 2.5m shark swimming closely to swimmers off Main Beach, Foster, in New South Wales.

Cameron’s aunt Rachel knew she had to do something and ran into the water to let them know, saving the swimmers from what could have been a devastating outcome.

Drones are being used by Australian lifeguards to monitor and track sharks swimming in and around popular beaches. The drone known as the Little Ripper uses AI to detect sharks, alerting lifeguards, emergency services, and swimmers. The shark-spotting drone has a 90% accuracy rate, while current manned aircraft have accuracy rates of around 20%, making drones an obvious replacement. Eddie Bennet of Little Ripper said:

Manned aerial flights have less than 20% accuracy. Our drones are very efficient, non-evasive, and non-destructive.

It’s not the first time a drone has spotted a shark, and it is becoming apparent that a drone might be something added the the arsenal of lifeguards everywhere.

• Drone pilot uses Mavic 2 Enterprise to warn surfer of approaching shark
• Drone captures great white sharks circling oblivious surfers
• Drone spots enormous great white shark in Esperance, Western Australia

In fact, it would make people feel a lot safer swimming on a beach if they knew a drone was patrolling the waters just beyond the swimmers, especially in high incidence areas.

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Photo: 7NEWS