A shark scientist says shark-spotting drones are the way of the future when it comes to monitoring Queensland beaches.

New international figures show eight of the world’s fatal shark attacks in 2020 happened in Australia and almost half of these attacks were in Queensland.

Shark scientist Dr Leonardo Guida and campaigner at the Australian Marine Conservation Society told Scott Emerson it was important to follow the science.

“To reduce these negative interactions with sharks, it’s important we move with the science,” he said.

“The science currently in Queensland; nets and drum lines are a 60 year technology, and we wouldn’t accept these safety standards in any other form of place be it our workplace or schools.

“We do have solutions on the table, we have drones, eco shark barriers, tagging technology.

“What we have seen with drones is we are actually finding more often than not sharks see us and don’t really care, they just go about their daily business. Whilst it is always tragic to hear of a shark bite, we never hear of how many times people saw a shark and nothing happened.

“What we are seeing in Queensland and we welcome this change … late last year … we saw the government trial drones at Gold Coast, Sunny Coast beaches.

“This is the direction we need to go in to improve beach safety.”

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