July 7 (UPI) — Shark-monitoring drones will be used to monitor New York beaches after several incidents, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday.
According to ABC News, the program will provide up to $1 million to buy about 42 drones and help train staff to use them. Half of the funds will help Long Island beaches, and the other half will be shared by New York City and Westchester County area beaches.
The announcement came after five shark bites were reported on Long Island over the July Fourth weekend.
“We are now more vigilant than ever,” George Gorman, the state’s park director in Long Island, told the New York Post. “We have drones in the sky that watch over the waters. We have lifeguards on WaveRunners that watch over the waters.”
The drones will sweep the beaches before they open, during midday and again before they close.
The state’s new drone investment allows beachside cities that didn’t previously have access to the devices to better track sharks — and provides cash to train workers to operate them, Hochul said, according to the Post.
Last year, out of the 41 confirmed, unprovoked shark bites in the United States, eight were in New York, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History.
