{"id":18093,"date":"2019-02-16T22:13:28","date_gmt":"2019-02-17T03:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/eyes-in-the-sky-more-drones-to-patrol-wa-beaches\/"},"modified":"2019-02-16T22:13:28","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T03:13:28","slug":"eyes-in-the-sky-more-drones-to-patrol-wa-beaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/?p=18093","title":{"rendered":"Eyes in the sky: More drones to patrol WA beaches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Seven new drones will hit the WA coast in the fight to keep beach-goers safe.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Six Perth life saving clubs and one in Meelup in WA&#039;s south west will start using Westpac rescue drones to patrol their patches of coast.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Drones will be used right across Perth beaches and Meelup beach in the south west.\" src=\"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/0fcb50e97ac91f1dcb5e913d4a9a72cc8489d78b-1.jpg\" \/><figcaption>\n<p>Drones will be used right across Perth beaches and Meelup beach in the south west.<cite>Credit:AP<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The WA drones are part of a national rollout of 51 drones.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017-18 Surf Life Saving WA made 730 coastal rescues in WA and 60,900 &#039;preventative&#039; actions.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The organisation hopes the drones&#039; vision and surveillance technology will improve its ability to spot rips, marine creatures, and distressed swimmers in a quicker and more accurate fashion than from patrols on the beach and in a helicopter.<\/p>\n<p>Surf life saving clubs first started using drones in 2016 when the former Barnett government spent $88,000 on a trial as part of its shark mitigation strategy.<\/p>\n<p>Surf Life Saving WA General Manager Lifesaving Chris Peck said the program would complement the organisation&#039;s existing government supported drone patrol program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSurf life Saving WA has been at the forefront of implementing drones into patrol operations at a<br \/>[surf life saving] club level, and this partnership with Westpac will enhance our existing drone<br \/>operations and play a key role in the program\u2019s expansion into the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe improved situational awareness that drones can add to other localised surveillance activity<br \/>such as beach patrols, will also complement the regional role performed by our Westpac lifesaver<br \/>rescue helicopter service, proving them an invaluable lifesaving asset.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>City Beach SLSC is running a community day on Sunday so beach-goers can get up close and personal to the drones.<\/p>\n<p>The drones will be used at the following beaches:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Secret Harbour Beach (Secret Harbour SLSC)<\/li>\n<li>Cottesloe Beach (Cottesloe SLSC)<\/li>\n<li>City Beach (City of Perth SLSC)<\/li>\n<li>Trigg Beach (Trigg Island SLSC)<\/li>\n<li>Mullaloo Beach (Mullaloo SLSC)<\/li>\n<li>Leighton Beach (Fremantle SLSC)<\/li>\n<li>South West region (Smiths Beach, Meelup)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rightsportal.copyright.com.au\/pages\/republicationpage.aspx?author=Fairfax%20Media%20Australia&amp;publication=WAT&amp;publicationdate=2019-02-17T02%3A49%3A00Z&amp;publisher=fxj&amp;title=Eyes%20in%20the%20sky%3A%20More%20drones%20to%20patrol%20WA%20beaches&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.watoday.com.au%2Fnational%2Fwestern-australia%2Feyes-in-the-sky-more-drones-to-patrol-wa-beaches-20190217-p50yd5.html\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">License this article<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.watoday.com.au\/topic\/emergency-services-hr3\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Emergency services<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.watoday.com.au\/topic\/drones-5wi\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Drones<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>LoadingAdvertisement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AdvertisementSeven new drones will hit the WA coast in the fight to keep beach-goers safe.<br \/>\nSix Perth life saving clubs and one in Meelup in WA&#039;s south west will start using Westpac rescue drones to patrol their patches of coast.<br \/>\nDrones will be used right across Perth beaches and Meelup beach in the south west.Credit:AP<br \/>\nThe WA drones are part of a national rollout of 51 drones.<br \/>\nIn 2017-18 Surf Life Saving WA made 730 coastal rescues in WA and 60,900 &#039;preventative&#039; actions.<br \/>\nAdvertisementThe organisation hopes the drones&#039; vision and surveillance technology will improve its ability to spot rips, marine creatures, and distressed swimmers in a quicker and more accurate fashion than from patrols on the beach and in a helicopter.<br \/>\nSurf life saving clubs first started using drones in 2016 when the former Barnett government spent $88,000 on a trial as part of its shark mitigation strategy.<br \/>\nSurf Life Saving WA General Manager Lifesaving Chris Peck said the program would complem..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}