That pairing is the story. New South Wales has built the largest aerial shark-surveillance operation anywhere, funded to more than A$120 million over two years, staffed by pilots who clear a beach in two to three minutes after a sighting, and backed by a coastal network of acoustic listening stations tracking 3,010 tagged sharks. It is also keeping the meshing program that marine scientists have spent a decade calling ineffective, and the minister in charge says so out loud.
For American readers the reference point is New York, where the NYPD and state parks now fly drones over Rockaway and Long Island beaches every summer. NSW is running that model at roughly ten times the scale, year round, with a budget line attached.
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