The City of Cape Town will add camera-mounted drones to its efforts to keep swimmers at two of South Africa’s busiest beaches, Fish Hoek and Muizenberg.
The remotely-operated drones will provide a live video feed of the water below which is used by shark-spotters, who can then warn swimmers about possible sightings.
The drones, which will be put in place thanks to a partnership with South Africa’s WeFix, will enable the human monitors to get a closer look at suspicious objects in the water and better differentiate between sharks and other marine animals like dolphins or even driftwood and seaweed.
“The guys were already doing a great job but now when they see something in the water they can send a drone out to see what it is,” WeFix spokesperson Alex Fourie told eNCA. Is it seaweed, is it a shark or a dolphin? By doing that the amount of false shark sightings are minimised.”
Should the pilot program prove successful, there are plans in place to expand the program to other South
African beaches.
Source: www.enca.com