Professional photographer Carlos Gauna has earned a great many followers with his drone videos of close encounters between people and sharks in the waters off Malibu. Now he’s gaining attention for using his UAV to allow a spear fisherman avoid a potentially toothy confrontation with a Great White coming his way.
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Wildlife enthusiast and photographer Chris Paparo has shot some outstanding footage over the years. But he may have reached his eye-popping peak with a drone video of blacktip sharks feeding amid an enormous pack of Atlantic menhaden off Long Island last month. Yet as visually spectacular as those shots are, Paparo says they’re even more significant in carrying urgent warnings about global warming.
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A surfer at Australia’s famous Bondi Beach dipped into the water with a shark swimming right under him earlier this week. Drone photographer Toby Nicol was there to watch it all unfold through the view of his drone.
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A surf life-saving drone in New South Wales, Australia, has captured a pro surfer narrowly avoiding a shark after it looks to be spooked by the surfer. Matt Wilkinson managed to get away unscathed earlier this week after his close encounter.
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The Westpac Little Ripper drone has been flying over Port Macquarie-Hastings in Australia for the past few months, alerting beachgoers of nearby sharks. The shark-spotting drone has sounded the alarm 14 times in four months.
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Drone footage captured earlier in the week at the famous Bondi Beach in Sydney has shown multiple sharks swimming close to the shore near to a school of fish. The drone spotted three to four bronze whalers and a possible great white shark.
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New South Wales (NSW) is planning on spending $5.5 million on shark-spotting drones and other equipment to protect beachgoers from sharks and other animals. The Australian state plans to have a fleet of drones patrolling the coastline.
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A drone has captured a great white shark swimming within inches of surfers paddling through the water in South Africa. Luckily no one was injured by the shark who was just investigating the surfers, according to Sarah Waries from the City of Cape Town (CoCT) Shark Spotters program.
A drone video recently posted to YouTube shows great white sharks feeding on a dead dolphin off the coast of California with swimmers nearby. In the video we are able to see two great white sharks shredding a dead dolphin while a group in a boat watch.
A drone has spotted sharks swimming off New Smyrna Beach, Florida, a popular beach and swimming location. The drone, flown by Jeremy Johnston, was able to take photos and videos of an estimated 20-50 sharks swimming in shallow water.
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.
Earlier today, I came across a story [paywall] in the Wall Street Journal that tells how a recent study from Woods Hole Group Inc. shows that there are no good methods to keep swimmers safe from great white sharks in the waters off Cape Cod. In recent years, several people have been injured by sharks, and at least one person died in 2018. It made me wonder whether the Little Ripper drone with SharkSpotter technology from the Australia-based Ripper Group might be able to help warn Cape Cod tourists about great white sharks.
A quick-thinking drone pilot used the speaker on the Mavic 2 Enterprise to warn a surfer of an approaching shark at a beach south of Wollongong, Australia. After hearing the warning the surfer quickly paddled back to shore, while the shark swam off into deeper waters.
We have reported quite a number of shark stories on DroneDJ because indeed drone footage shows sharks swimming closer to people more often than you think. Outside Magazine had a short story about this and included some new videos. So for all drone and sharks fans out there, check this out.
A photographer with a drone captured great white sharks circling oblivious surfers in California. This is not the first time we have reported on shark sightings. The aerial perspective that a drone provides makes these predators much easier to spot than from the beach or water, as is the case in this example as well. The surfers only seem to realize at the very end that they had company.
Photographer and drone enthusiast Dan Watson flew his DJI Mavic 2 Pro during a family outing to the beach last week. As he was getting ready to get some aerial shots of his family playing around in the ocean, he noticed a dark shadow in the water. Dan instantly realized that the dark shadow was likely a shark approaching his family and he shouted for them to get out of the water immediately. While his they ran for safety, he kept firing shots with his DJI Mavic 2 Pro, which he later shared on Instagram.
Australia has been at the forefront of using drones to keep swimmers and surfers safe and warn them of any nearby sharks. Jason Iggleden, a builder from Sydney, said that the idea for a shark-spotting app was so obvious to him that he filed for a patent and sold everything he owned to develop and launch his new app, called Drone Shark.
In Australia, scientists of the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries are testing drones to learn more about shark behavior and using this technology as a beach safety device. Australia seems to be much further ahead than the US when it comes to using drones to keep beaches safe. The video below shows you some amazing footage of sharks, dolphins, and whales, that was collected during these tests.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning in Cape Cod with calm water and a slight offshore breeze. It also happened to be Roger Freeman’s last day on the beach and the 54-year-old Hingham resident figured it was a great day for a little bit of paddleboarding of Nauset Beach in Orleans.
Have you ever heard of drone fishing? No, well check this out. These guys are catching massive sharks by dropping their bait as far as 1,000 feet, well beyond the distance you’d be able to get to from the beach otherwise.
Drone pilots spot sharks in coastal waters often enough that we have an entire category dedicated to the topic here at DroneDJ, but not always do these encounters mean a potential life saved thanks to an eagle-eyed quadcopter pilot. In the latest of these stories, a drone pilot spotted a young boy swimming near sharks in the Bahamas, and yelled to alert him of their presence just in time…
Pascal Partouche from Holon, Israel, flew his drone over what seems to be the Mediterranean ocean and took a bunch of photos. One of which was a guy swimming or snorkeling. Only when Pascal came home and took a closer look at the pictures, did he discover the shark lurking right behind the swimmer. The guy in the wetsuit was totally unaware of the danger lurking behind him in the turquoise water. The shark seems to be around 8 feet long. Surely big enough to do some serious damage. We have no information on the kind of shark but have reached out to Pascal for more information.
A specially designed drone will help to keep Australian swimmers and surfers safe from sharks and drowning. The so-called shark-spotting Westpac Little Ripper Lifesaver drone comes with special software that helps to identify swimmers, surfers, and sharks. The rescue drone also carries a flotation device that can be dropped to struggling swimmers and comes equipped with a loud speaker. We have reported on drones being sued by lifeguards in Australia in Perth and Queensland but the Little Ripper seems significantly more advanced.