NEW YORK — A fleet of drones patrolling New York City beaches in search of sharks and struggling swimmers is met with resistance from an aggressive group of coastal residents: local shorebirds.
Since the drones began flying in May, flocks of birds have repeatedly flown around the devices, prompting police and other city agencies to adjust their flight plans. While the attacks have decreased, they have not stopped altogether, raising concerns among wildlife experts about the impact on endangered species that nest along the coast.
Veronica Welsh, wildlife management coordinator at the Parks Department, said the birds were “very annoyed by the drones” from the moment they arrived on the beach.
“They fly at it, they dive at it, they make noise,” Welsh said. “They think they’re defending their chicks from a predator.”
No birds were injured, but officials say there have been several dire situations. The drones, which are equipped with inflatable life rafts that can be dropped on swimmers in distress, have not yet conducted any rescues. They spotted their first shark on Thursday, resulting in a closure of most of the beach.
City officials said the “swarming incidents” have been carried out primarily by American oystercatchers. The shorebird, known for its striking orange bill, lays its eggs in the sand at Rockaway Beach this time of year. While the population has increased in recent decades, federal authorities consider the species to be of “important conservation importance.”
David Bird, a professor of wildlife biology at McGill University, said the birds may eventually become accustomed to the devices, which can be nearly a metre long and emit a loud buzz as they fly.
But he quickly raised a much more serious possibility: that the drones could trigger a stress response in some birds that causes them to flee the beach and abandon their eggs, as thousands of elegant terns did after a recent drone crash in San Diego.
“We don’t know much about the distance that is needed to protect the birds,” he said. “But we do know that there are birds on this beach that are critically endangered. If they abandon their nests because of the drones, that would be a disaster.”
At Rockaway Beach, a popular summer destination for New Yorkers, oystercatchers share habitat with several species of waterfowl terns, as well as the Kentish plover, a small, sand-colored bird that’s the city’s only federally designated endangered species. Local officials keep a close eye on the plovers each summer, banning beachgoers—and drones—from the sandy expanses where they primarily nest.
After the city’s emergency management department reported the conflict on the coast last month, drone operators, largely made up of police and firefighters, agreed to fly the devices farther away from oystercatcher breeding grounds.
“We pointed out that there is a nest here and there are two angry parents who don’t want you anywhere near their eggs or their young,” said Natalie Grybauskas, the agency’s assistant commissioner.
Since then, agencies have been holding briefings on the topic, a departure from their usual work on disasters such as fires and collapsed buildings.
“It’s rare that you have to learn about the life cycle of baby birds,” Grybauskas said.
But even after the city adjusted the flight range, beachgoers still saw flocks of birds descending on the drones.
New York City isn’t alone in using drones to patrol its waters. After a series of shark bites last summer, similar effort was launched by officials on Long Island. These devices are smaller and quieter and do not have flotation devices. In recent years, lifeguards in Australia have also used drones to monitor sharks and perform rescue operations.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a committed drone enthusiasthas praised the new drone program as a “great addition to saving the lives of those we lose during the summer,” especially as the city struggles to hire lifeguards to staff the beaches.
This summer, four people drowned on city beaches, equal to the total number of swimming deaths last year.
After two teenagers disappeared while swimming at a beach near Rockaway, the NYPD flew with his drones as part of the search mission. Both bodies eventually washed up on the shoreline.
The fire brigade’s drones also have captured images of lifeguards helping swimmers struggling with a countercurrent at Rockaway Beach.
Christopher Allieri, founder of the NYC Plover Project, a bird conservation group, praised the city for its innovative approach to water safety. But he stressed that extra precautions were needed to ensure the drones didn’t harm the wading bird population.
“Wildlife in New York is often an afterthought,” he said. “We should be asking ourselves, how can we use this technology in a way that works for all New Yorkers, and that includes those with feathers.”