Factors Affecting Shark Detection from Drone Patrols in Southeast Queensland, Eastern Australia

Mitchell, J. D.; Scott-Holland, Tracey B.; Butcher, Paul A.

doi:10.3390/biology11111552

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Aerial survey methods using drones allowed for a cost-effective tool for quantifying human water user distribution along a large, heavily populated coastline, providing the first large-scale survey of white shark/human shared habitat use. Historically, aerial surveys have shown to be an effective tool for quantifying human beach recreation use [26,27,[40][41][42]61,62] and drones are being used to study shark nearshore behavior with increased frequency [46,48,50,[63][64][65]. However, characterization of human water user and shark distributions across varying spatial scales is novel.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of overlapping habitat use of juvenile white shark and human recreational water users along southern California beaches

et al. 2023

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Juvenile white sharks (JWS) of the Northeastern Pacific population are present in nearshore southern California waters and form mixed size class (~1.5–3 m) aggregations for weeks to months, often within 500 m of shore. These nearshore beach habitats are heavily used for human recreation (e.g., surfing, swimming, body boarding, wading, and standup paddleboarding) and the amount of spatio-temporal overlap between JWS and humans is currently unknown. Increases in human population and the Northeastern Pacific population of white sharks have raised concern over human beach safety. To determine spatio-temporal JWS-human overlap at various spatial scales (e.g., across the entire southern California coastline, across different distances from shore, and within specific beach locations), 26 beach locations across southern California were surveyed monthly resulting in 1644 aerial drone surveys between January 2019 to March 2021. Thirteen environmental variables were assessed to predict when spatio-temporal overlap between JWS and water users was highest. Coast-wide distribution of JWS was clumped, limiting human-shark co-occurrence to specific locations, with 1096 of 1204 JWS observations occurring at Carpinteria and Del Mar Beach locations. Nearshore distribution indicated JWS are often close enough to the wave break to interact with some water users (median = 101 m, range = 2–702 m), although JWS had the most spatial overlap with stand-up paddlers. Daily human-shark co-occurrence was 97% at beaches where JWS aggregations had formed, and human activity showed high spatial overlap at shark aggregation sites. Although there is higher seasonal human-shark spatio-temporal overlap where aggregations form in southern California, the number of unprovoked shark bites across southern California is extremely low. This study provides evidence that high human-shark spatio-temporal overlap does not lead to an increased bite frequency in southern California, and there are a number of possible explanations as to why JWS are not biting water users despite daily encounters.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of overlapping habitat use of juvenile white shark and human recreational water users along southern California beaches

et al. 2023

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“…In the last decade, UAVs have begun to be used to monitor marine fauna, since it can cover a larger area of monitoring, and photographs can be obtained, which can be revised in more detail later (Hodgson et al, 2013;Kiszka et al, 2016;Dawson et al, 2017;Hensel et al, 2018;Gorkin et al, 2020;Giacomo et al, 2021;Mitchell et al, 2022;Rowe et al, 2022). To the west of Australia in Shark Bay, a study was conducted using a ScanEagle fixed-wing drone, with a mounted digital SLR camera, to conduct dugong (Dugong dugong Müller, 1776) monitoring (Hodgson et al, 2013).…”

Section: Monitoring Of Marine Faunamentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles for wildlife research

De la Llata Quiroga

2023

BIOCYT

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In this bibliographic review, I provide an overview of wildlife studies that have been conducted using drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) and the opportunities that exist for their future implementation. Drones are useful for census and population trends, patterns of habitat use, species identification, measurement of individuals, assessing the anthropogenic effect on species and their habitat. Drones have advantages over manned aircraft to conduct wildlife surveys, such as obtaining georeferenced images and videos, safety for the researcher, low cost, and the need for little logistics. However, drones have disadvantages, such as limited flight time and limited distance range, may present a risk when flying near wildlife, it is necessary to take certain measures to implement and comply with the legislation of each country. Through case studies it is demonstrated how the images acquired with drones have great potential to revolutionize the study of wildlife.

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The influence of human and marine wildlife presence on white shark behaviour in nearshore areas

Monteforte,

Butcher,

Morris

et al. 2024

ICES Journal of Marine Science

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The co-occurrence of people and sharks within nearshore areas raises concerns about human safety. Unprovoked shark bites are one of the most renowned negative human–wildlife encounters. White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) are implicated in most fatal unprovoked shark bites globally, but there is limited knowledge of white shark behaviour in the presence of people. We used drone-based methods to analyse human–shark and wildlife–shark interactions. We found a higher probability of a white shark interaction with a nearby person (0.81) in comparison to an animal (0.65). Fishers had the highest, and swimmers had the lowest probability of a white shark interaction. White sharks exhibited investigative behaviour in most interactions, with directional changes towards a nearby person or animal in 85.9% and 94.0% of interactions, respectively. There was a higher probability for white sharks to increase their speed towards animals (0.16) than people (0.01). The likelihood of white sharks altering their speed or direction when people were present depended on human activity. Overall, our study highlighted the value of drone technology in providing insights into white shark behaviour. It also supported the contention that, while people and white sharks coexist within nearshore areas, the probability of a negative human–wildlife encounter remains low.

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Factors Affecting Shark Detection from Drone Patrols in Southeast Queensland, Eastern Australia

Cited by 4 publications

References 45 publications

Patterns of overlapping habitat use of juvenile white shark and human recreational water users along southern California beaches

Patterns of overlapping habitat use of juvenile white shark and human recreational water users along southern California beaches

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles for wildlife research

The influence of human and marine wildlife presence on white shark behaviour in nearshore areas

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