The South Australian government has pledged half a million dollars to protect swimmers from sharks, following several fatal attacks in the state. Sophie Holder has the details.
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00:00This money is being spent on things like trauma kits, drones and also further education for
00:07regional students.
00:09The money will also help to fund more surf life-saving helicopters to be flying between
00:13Robe and Wyala during community aquatic events.
00:16This has come after there were three fatal shark attacks last year which unfortunately
00:21took the lives of Todd Gendel, Simon Baccanello and also of teenager Kai Cowley and all three
00:27of those were along regional or remote beaches.
00:30Now a shark task force was established after these attacks and these measurements were
00:34recommendations by them to help keep those regional swimmers safer.
00:39So Surf Life Saving SA Chief Executive Damien Marangon says that he'll be working with these
00:44regional communities on the best ways to help keep these people safe in their beaches.
00:49Now he says that there's already been around 26 different confirmed shark sightings across
00:54South Australian beaches so far this year and here's what he had to say.
00:58We're not worried about the numbers, they're on average.
01:01What has been strange is that there's been some groupings of sharks, but we continue
01:05to work with experts in state government and also with institutions like Flinders University
01:11to do all we can to understand that behaviour and make sure the public is as safe as possible.
01:16Professor Charlie Harbonez is one of those experts and he says that this will help people
01:21to better understand sharks and he's also welcomed this funding for education as well.
01:27He says that people who've got a better understanding of these mitigation techniques and how they
01:30can or cannot help will be able to help them to make informed decisions as we're coming
01:34into these warmer months.