Shark-spotting drones, operators will increase off Long Island beaches this year
The fleet of drones used to scan for sharks in the shallow waters off Long Island beaches will grow this summer, as will the number of pilots, officials said.
The fleet, now at 30, will add 16 machines, and the number of operators will grow from 47 to 67, according to a news release from Gov. Kathy Hochul's office. The operators are mostly staffers of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation who are federally licensed but trained by the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.
“We started in 2021 with lifeguards who volunteered their drones, and we have evolved to the point where we are using top-of-the-line drones with better cameras and wind resistance,” George Gorman, Long Island regional director for parks, said in an interview Friday on the Jones Beach boardwalk.
As he spoke, a State Park Police pilot launched a DJI Matrice 300 RTK. Its four rotors made the sound of a swarm of angry bees, and the thing darted up to hover about 60 feet overhead.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- The shark-detecting drone fleet on LI beaches will grow by 16 machines, to 46, while the number of operators will increase from 47 to 67, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said Friday.
- The drone program’s expansion will support patrols three times daily at state beaches — in the early morning, in the afternoon and before beach closure.
- In recent seasons, the number of shark sightings this summer has been few and the number of close-up encounters, including those resulting in bites, tiny. Last year, there were 10 sightings and one encounter, according to state data.
The Matrice can stay airborne for up to 55 minutes. This particular specimen cost $40,000 and was equipped with night vision, thermal imaging and a powerful zoom lens, making it useful not just for wildlife scans but also in searches for swimmers in distress, said Park Police Capt. Rishi Basdeo. The fleet’s cheaper models cost closer to $6,000.
“In the past, we’d use marine assets,” basically, officers in a boat, Basdeo said. “It was line of sight. Because the drone is three-dimensional, it’s more efficient, more cost-effective, to survey a large area.”
Expansion of the program will support drone patrols three times daily at state beaches — early mornings before swimmers arrive, in the afternoon and before beach closure, Gorman said. Operators will add patrols if they spot baitfish, a strong indicator that feeding sharks may also be present.
Parks works with state Department of Environmental Conservation biologists to confirm potential shark sightings. Swimming is not permitted for at least one hour after a confirmed sighting, and lifeguards, park police and park staff continue monitoring the water.
About 18 million people visit Long Island beaches each summer. So do about a dozen species of sharks, in numbers that are hard to pin down. The global shark population is seriously threatened by overfishing — a 2021 paper in the journal Nature suggested their number had declined by 71% since 1970 — but some Atlantic species are recovering.
It may be the case, as Basdeo said, that people have seen more sharks off Long Island in recent years simply because they are looking harder for them; another theory, said Gorman, is that sharks are drawn in greater numbers to the area's waters, which are warmer and cleaner than in the past, and because the population of “bait and bunker fish" — shark food — "has increased dramatically.”
Among the species most commonly spotted off beaches here are sand tiger sharks, which use estuaries like Great South Bay as nursery habitat for juveniles during the summer months.
If history is any guide, the number of shark sightings this summer will be small and the number of close-up encounters, including those resulting in bites, will be tiny. In the last five years, the number of encounters in total at Jones, Robert Moses and Hither Hills beaches has fluctuated from none to three, according to state data. Last year, there were 10 sightings and one encounter. It involved a 20-year-old woman standing in waist-deep murky waters and a suspected juvenile sand tiger shark. The woman suffered minor cuts.
Cary Epstein, a lifeguard and drone operator, said he starts his surveillance in what he called the “hot zone,” from the shoreline 50 yards out, then moves to the “cool zone,” extending 200 yards out. “You have to find the right angle” for the drone camera, he said. “Pointing the drone at the sun, you’re going to get glare.”
Pointing the camera straight down doesn’t work well either. He’s found that observing from a slight angle works best. A typical session lasts 30 minutes. It takes “mental strength” to scrutinize the feed that long for shark-shaped creatures and baitfish, Epstein said.
Last year, Epstein said, he and his fellow lifeguards made about 1,000 rescues, many of swimmers who got caught in rip currents. By contrast, he said, “The chances of an encounter are very, very, very slim.”
Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.
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