SharkSmart drone program

If a shark is spotted

If a potentially dangerous shark is spotted:

• the drone flies lower and follows the shark
• lifesavers and lifeguards can evacuate the water and temporarily close the beach if required.

Locations

• Burleigh Beach, Gold Coast
• Kurrawa Beach, Gold Coast
• Main Beach, Gold Coast
• Minjerribah (Main Beach), North Stradbroke Island
• Woorim Beach, Bribie Island (summer holidays only)
• Alexandra Headland, Sunshine Coast
• Coolum North, Sunshine Coast
• Noosa Main Beach, Sunshine Coast
• Rainbow Beach, Cooloola Coast
• Alma Bay, Magnetic Island.

Expanding to new locations in 2025–26

• Kirra Beach, Gold Coast
• Cylinder Beach, North Stradbroke Island
• Kings Beach, Sunshine Coast
• Kelly’s Beach, Bundaberg
• Agnes Water Main Beach
• Tangalooma, Moreton Island (summer and Easter school holidays)

New locations for 2026–27 are yet to be confirmed.

Read more about shark control equipment locations.

Operating times

Drones operate on weekends, public holidays and Queensland school holidays.

The hours of operation vary depending on weather conditions, but usually drone flights start when beach patrol opens in the morning, and drones fly twice every hour, until around midday. Each flight is approximately 20 minutes.

To find out whether drones are operating, look for the drone operator, signage, and the landing or take-off zone marked out on the beach.

Noise

Unlike helicopters, planes or larger drones, the drones used in the SharkSmart drone program are very quiet and do not create excessive noise that would affect residents or beachgoers.

Apart from taking off and landing on the beach, drones are deployed to fly over water, well away from nearby residents.

Your privacy—video footage and images

The department, in partnership with Surf Life Saving Queensland (SLSQ), uses drones to collect aerial footage for research and beach safety purposes.

Images of people may be captured incidentally by video during flights. Cameras on drones are directed to monitor the ocean, not people on the beach or nearby residences. Video recording is switched off during drone take-off and landing on the beach.

Sometimes video footage may be released publicly via the SharkSmart website or media for education and communication purposes. Any video footage or photographs released publicly will be carefully reviewed and individuals will be de-identified through blurring or cropping the footage.

Video and images will only be used for these purposes and will not otherwise be used or disclosed unless authorised or required by law. Your personal information will be handled under the Information Privacy Act 2009.

More information about privacy

Email scp@dpi.qld.gov.au.

About the program

The SharkSmart drone program is a priority initiative of the Queensland Government’s Shark Management Plan 2025–2029.

The SharkSmart drone program is operated by SLSQ:

• Pilots hold a Remote Pilot Licence (RePL) and follow Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) requirements.
• All flights are subject to weather conditions.

Aims

• Detect sharks that could pose a threat to water users.
• Manage the risk of potentially dangerous sharks detected by drones in real time.
• Monitor and record species, size and behaviour of sharks spotted by drones.
• Detect and manage other risks in the marine environment.
• Continue to explore innovative approaches to enhance the program's effectiveness.

Benefits

• Provide a bird's-eye view of the ocean and what's happening beneath the surface, compared to traditional monitoring by lifesavers and lifeguards from beach towers or watercraft.
• Is more cost-effective for shark spotting than other beach aerial monitoring, such as helicopter flights.
• Has a negligible impact on marine life.
• Real-time monitoring means lifesavers and lifeguards can respond rapidly if a shark or other marine risk is spotted.
• Improves overall beach safety through monitoring marine threats or assisting with rescues.

Limitations

• Drones cannot operate in poor weather (strong winds, rain or storms).
• Special permissions with strict conditions are required to operate in restricted airspace, near airports.
• Drone monitoring requires highly skilled operators and is labour-intensive.
• Drones are less effective in areas with murky waters, such as some North Queensland beaches.

Drone research and trials

Queensland SharkSmart Drone Trial (2020–2024)

This Queensland SharkSmart Drone Trial (2020–2024) final report presents the results and evaluation of the SharkSmart drone trial from 2020 to 2024.

Key results and messages

• Across 10 beaches, SLSQ pilots conducted 17,954 drone flights between September 2020 and April 2024 (16,601 at South East Queensland beaches, 1,353 at northern Queensland beaches) covering 7,181km.
• A relatively low number of flights (5%) were cancelled due to bad weather.
• Sharks were sighted on 3.8% of flights, with 676 shark sighting events recorded (a sighting event can be 1 individual shark or multiple). This equated to a total number of 4,959 sharks seen across the trial.
• Of these 676 sighting events, 190 were large sharks estimated to be >2m in total length.
• 23 bull sharks, 1 white shark and no tiger sharks were sighted across the whole trial.
• There were 39 occasions where SLSQ evacuated people from the water due to potential risks from large sharks sighted through the drones.
• Shark sightings were:
  • most common at Main Beach, North Stradbroke Island and Burleigh Beach, Gold Coast
  • least common at Alexandra Headland, Sunshine Coast and Southport Main Beach, Gold Coast.
• A range of environmental factors influenced the likelihood of sighting sharks, including the:
  • presence of other (non-shark) fauna
  • season
  • wind speed and direction
  • turbidity
  • tidal state
  • sea-surface glare
  • atmospheric pressure.
• The total number of shark sighting events by drones (676) was significantly greater than the number of sharks caught in Shark Control Program nets and drumlines deployed at the same beaches over the same time period (284).
• A similar number of bull sharks were sighted on drones (23) compared to caught in nets and drumlines (26); however, the nets and drumlines caught 64 tiger sharks and five white sharks, whereas only 1 white shark was sighted on drones and no tiger sharks. This may indicate that tiger sharks and white sharks occur further offshore or that these species are caught at night when drones are not operating.
• Nets and drumlines had a substantially higher environmental impact than drones due to the capture of 123 non-target animals (not including non-target sharks) at these 10 beaches during the trial period.

Overall, it is important to note that drones and nets/drumlines operate in a very different way:

• Drones are a surveillance tool to detect sharks and warn water users in real time.
• Nets/drumlines are designed to catch sharks before they can get to beaches.

The 2 methods also operate on very different spatial and temporal scales, so these factors must be carefully considered.

The Queensland SharkSmart drone trial interim evaluation presents the results and evaluation of the first phase of the SharkSmart drone trial from 2020 to 2021.

Enhanced aerial shark detection from drones

This project aimed to test the capability of artificial intelligence software and advanced camera technologies to identify sharks in Queensland coastal conditions.

Key results and messages

• The Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions tested built some confidence that AI technologies could enhance the detection of sharks on Queensland beaches. However, further training of AI models is required to improve performance. Solutions are not currently market-ready.
• There is potential for spectral imagery systems to enhance the detection of sharks in murky water. However, commercially available systems are not configured for use in shark detection.
• Enhancements are required to AI and spectral imagery solutions to ensure they meet the operational needs of SLSQ.
• As solutions mature, improve in performance and reduce in cost, their suitability for adoption into the Shark Control Program will improve.

Read more about this project in the Enhanced Aerial Shark Detection from Drones final report.

Community feedback

In April 2021, we compiled a community sentiment report based on:

• 751 responses to a market research survey
• 233 responses to a community online survey
• 1,761 responses to a community online quick poll.