Jason uses a drone to look for sharks at Bondi. Here’s what he sees
By Caitlin Fitzsimmons
Almost every morning, 20 minutes before dawn, Jason Iggleden stands at a vantage point overlooking Bondi Beach and flies his drone.
He is hoping to spot sharks, not because he is scared but because he loves them and wants to share the beauty of the ocean with others.
Jason Iggleden flying his drone on the rocks at the southern end of Bondi Beach.Credit: Sam Mooy
When we met this week, sharks and fish were invisible beneath the waves. Yet before the recent wet weather came a long spell of calm, flat seas attracting giant schools of Australian salmon and sharks drawn to feed on the plentiful fish.
The sharks were always there, but we realise it more in the era of drone technology and social media creators such as Iggleden, posting on Instagram as @dronesharkapp to 221,000 followers. Iggleden said drones often capture vision of people swimming next to sharks without realising it because the visibility is so much better from above.
“There’s a lot of people, even some surfers, say ‘wow, I did not see that shark’ because sometimes the clarity with the drone, it’s like a bird’s-eye view and with that top-down perspective, it just highlights everything,” Iggleden said.
“A lot of my followers say they love what I do because it’s actually opened their eyes to how sharks aren’t really out to hunt us, given the amount of times they’re swimming next to us and under us and around us to get to the fish.”
At Bondi, it might be a harmless species such as an endangered grey nurse shark. However, posts from Californian Instagram creators such as Scott Fairchild (@scott_fairchild) and Carlos Guana (@themalibuartist) show even the much-feared great white sharks swimming peacefully among swimmers and surfers.
Nonetheless, if Iggleden sees a great white shark or any other species regarded as dangerous he will use the speaker on his drone to warn the people in the water. He calculates that if 2000 followers pay him $5 a month, he will be able to quit his day job as a builder and become a full-time shark spotter.
Backing up Iggleden’s observation that sharks are not more plentiful, just more likely to be seen, is the data in the Australian Shark-Incident Database, maintained by Taronga Zoo.
The number of shark encounters where a person is injured (ranging from minor lacerations to a small number of deaths) was an average of 6.2 a year in NSW over the past five years, compared with 6.6 a decade earlier. The state’s population increased by 3 million people in that time.
The NSW government recently asked Waverley Council, Northern Beaches Council and Central Coast Council to nominate a beach to trial removing shark nets this summer. Tamarama does not have a net, so for Waverley Council, this would mean either Bondi or Bronte, while the other two councils have many beaches to choose from. The councils must respond by August 22.
A Central Coast Council spokesperson said it would work with the state government and Surf Life Saving NSW to decide which beach should trial the shark net removal.
Waverley Mayor Will Nemesh has written to NSW Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty to request more information about the other shark mitigation measures such as SMART drum lines and more drones the state plans to provide.
The councils have long lobbied for the removal of shark nets because of growing evidence that they are ineffective and indiscriminately kill marine life, but it is ultimately a decision for the state government. Earlier this year the NSW government started consultation with councils about winding back shark nets, and also removed them for winter a month earlier than usual because of evidence about turtle bycatch.
A dead grey nurse shark, entangled in a mesh net off the coast of NSW. Image obtained from the NSW government under FOI.
Iggleden said most people did not realise that the mesh shark nets installed at 51 NSW beaches each summer are just 150 metres long and sharks swim over, under and around them.
He had been filming the sharks for some time, giving them names such as Norman and Nelly when he first noticed the nets.
“I remember clearly the day of the dead dolphin – I love dolphins, they’re so beautiful, and I saw a dead dolphin [caught in the net at Bondi], and it really tore at my heart,” Iggleden said.
“I learned more about them [the nets] and started really becoming passionate about how we need to get rid of these barbaric systems.”
Associate Professor of Public Policy Dr Christopher Pepin-Neff, from the University of Sydney, said shark nets caught a lot of fish, attracting sharks looking for an easy meal.
“It may be that beaches with shark nets are the least safe, not the most safe,” Pepin-Neff said.
From 2014-15 to 2023-24 there were 3825 animals caught in mesh nets across Greater Sydney, NSW Department of Primary Industries figures show. Of those, only 315 were target sharks and 3510 were non-target animals such as grey nurse sharks, dolphins, rays and turtles. Less than half survived.
From 2022-23 to 2023-24 there were 915 target sharks caught by SMART drum lines and 756 non-target animals, but the vast majority were released alive.
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