00:01Yeah, Joe, look, it was almost identical to what occurred yesterday, around about 6.41
00:07in the morning, in fact, just as the day was starting to lighten up.
00:12And drone operator Jason Igledon, who is known to many people on social media as Drone Shark
00:20App, was flying his drone over Bondi Beach and spotted a large shark in the water.
00:29Now, you saw that yesterday morning, again today.
00:33Yesterday, he took very prompt action.
00:35He actually got on the phone to his partner, Angela Curry, who was actually down on the
00:40beach and about to go for a swim.
00:43And she was able to raise the alarm amongst her fellow swimmers there and get surfers out
00:50of the water as well and get the word to surf lifesavers.
00:54You know, a really curious thing is that Jason Igledon isn't actually able to get in touch
00:59with the surf lifesavers at Bondi directly himself.
01:02He has to go through the switchboard at the local council.
01:05So that can lose precious minutes when he spots a predator like that in the water close to
01:12swimmers.
01:13So that's what happened yesterday.
01:14The beach was closed.
01:16The alarms went off and then there was a repeat of it all happening again today, this morning.
01:23And of course, very sobering after that attack that was seen at the nearby Yakuji Beach just
01:2910 or 11 days ago.
01:32Something quite unsettling for the locals there.
01:35And so what actions are authorities considering taking in the wake of that?
01:38Yeah, well, look, the New South Wales government, by strange coincidence, handed down its budget
01:47yesterday with measures for new shark management programs included with funding there for additional
01:56beach netting and also things like smart drum lines and surveillance programs.
02:04Drones are also something that's being looked at.
02:08And the New South Wales Premier has confirmed that he's happy to look at whether drones should
02:14be rolled out in greater numbers on our major beaches.
02:20Now, somebody like Jason Igledon from Drone Shark is very, very, very strongly of the view.
02:27He's in the air every day there at Bondi.
02:30He's strongly of the view that the best thing that we can do to guard against animals and
02:35shark attacks like these is to spot them with drones.
02:40And there's support for that.
02:42I mean, one of the crossbenchers in the New South Wales Parliament, Jackie Scrooby, who is
02:49the member for Pitwater on Sydney's northern beach, she's actually calling for constant drone
02:54surveillance over Sydney's major beaches during all daylight hours, which, you know, the technology
03:01does exist for something like this, but it's something that hasn't been done anywhere in
03:05the world.
03:06And Chris Minns, the New South Wales Premier, admits that if New South Wales was to go ahead
03:11and do something like that, well, they'd pretty much have to invent the system to get it up
03:16and running.
03:16But he's not ruling it out at this stage.
03:19And Nick, you're a keen swimmer yourself, have you, what have you noticed in terms of the
03:23number of people swimming in that part of Sydney over the last week in the wake of that
03:29attack?
03:29Look, there's still been plenty of people going into the water.
03:33I think most people are sort of anxious about what occurred to 35-year-old Leah Stewart, who
03:41you mentioned a moment ago, has just come out of that induced coma that she was put into
03:47as a result of those serious injuries that she received in the attack at Coogee, not far
03:52from Bondi Beach, of course.
03:55I was actually swimming that day myself, a bit earlier in the morning, but it was, you
04:00know, something that certainly made me think twice about getting into the water again.
04:05I have been swimming again since then.
04:07But it's something that you always have to keep in the back of your mind.
04:10Of course, she was extremely unlucky.
04:12If you look at the stats, it's still an extremely rare thing to happen.
04:18But we all, everybody, all beachgoers just have to be conscious that that's what could
04:23potentially happen when you go in the water.
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