尽管无人机还能广泛监测水母、裂流与长期鲨鱼行为，政策仍在近月两起致命鲨鱼攻击（其中一起发生在雪梨北郊）后受恐惧牵制。统计显示，澳洲人更可能死于其他海洋与动物风险：在截至六月的12个月内，河流与海域共造成357人溺毙，而袋鼠、蜜蜂，尤其是马匹，每年合计导致的死亡都多于鲨鱼。
澳洲鲨鱼攻击事件呈上升趋势，可能因较健康的海洋生态系统养活更多海豹、年幼鲸类与海豚族群，吸引掠食者，也让公众恐惧与实际统计风险失衡。虽然任何技术都无法把鲨鱼危险降至零，持续进步且有望更便宜的自主无人机能提供以资料为基础、精准且兼顾野生动物保育的防护，相比之下，传统防鲨网既严重破坏生态，又依据研究与民意显示效果有限且不受欢迎。
In Sydney’s ocean culture, traditional shark nets introduced in 1937 kill more than 1,600 animals a decade, including 55 dolphins, 81 turtles and only 124 large predatory sharks — roughly 8% of the toll — while failing to physically separate swimmers from the open sea. Trials of AI-enabled drone surveillance, using pattern-recognition tech similar to supermarket scanners, show compelling evidence of improved shark detection, allowing rapid evacuation without random culling of marine life, and SMART drumlines offer some additional but limited benefit.
Despite drones’ broader abilities to monitor jellyfish, rips and shark behavior over time, policy is constrained by fear after two fatal shark attacks in recent months, one near Sydney’s northern suburbs. Yet Australians are far more likely to die from other ocean and animal hazards: 357 people drowned in rivers and seas in the 12 months to June, and kangaroos, bees and especially horses collectively cause more deaths than sharks each year.
Shark attacks in Australia have been trending upward, possibly because healthier marine ecosystems now support larger populations of seals, juvenile whales and dolphins that attract predators, intensifying public anxiety out of proportion to the statistical risk. While no technology can reduce shark danger to zero, continually improving, potentially cheaper autonomous drones offer a data-rich, targeted defense that preserves wildlife, whereas legacy nets are both ecologically destructive and, according to studies and public opinion, largely ineffective and unpopular.
