As summer approaches, the need for fun-in-the-sun is on everyone’s mind. For the drone community, the possibilities of cool adventures with a stellar drone are endless. If you are a beach lover but stay close to the shore due to sharks and jellyfish, you will love what researchers are working on to prevent beachgoers from becoming shark food. Yes, it’s a case of drones saving lives, they say.
A stylish drone is currently being tested to help lifeguards identify when sharks are close to swimmers. The idea is to use drones to track the sharks as they swim close to the shore. Shark attacks have been occurring more often. Hospitalizations due to shark attacks have rapidly increased over the last 5 years.
Drones saving lives on the beach
Sharks are traveling farther distance for food and are populating in parts of the oceans where their presence is typically uncommon. Researchers from the University of North Carolina and Duke University have created a scientific study that will give lifeguards the advantage they need to protect those in the ocean. Upon the completion of this study, there very soon will a huge decrease of shark attacks and casualties.
Cities like Cape Cod, Massachusetts have recently seen a surge in white sharks. It is more common for blue sharks to be in the east coast waters. Blue sharks tend to be more mild and less aggressive than the notorious white shark. Major beach cities across the U.S. are trying different methods to alert beachgoers of the dangerous but fascinating animals. Scientist in Cape Cod a few years back, inserted a microchip into a shark to be able to track its whereabouts.
The great whites are being drawn to Cape Cod’s waters because seals, their favorite food, have dramatically rebounded there, thanks to a 1972 law that made it illegal to kill them.
Researchers, beach managers and public safety officials have been convening in recent years an unofficial “shark working group” to come up with ways to educate the public. Among the ideas they developed for this summer were the warning flags, which are purple and emblazoned with the unmistakable silhouette of a great white. The flags will start flying at some town beaches starting this Memorial Day weekend and appear on beaches administered by the National Park Service starting June 16, when those beaches are staffed with lifeguards.
