Our founder talks about SharkSmart on SBS

SharkSmart on SBS

Mobiddiction is excited to announce that on Saturday 1st of March, our founder, Mrudul ‘Mike’ Vasavada was interviewed on SBS News for our work with DPIRD team on the SharkSmart program. We were also pleased to hear that the SharkSmart media was published on other SBS community channels including SBS Radio.

The SBS Small Business Secrets feature states “There’s a two-metre bull shark at Tallows beach, Byron Bay, and it is quite close to the beach,” he says, looking at a map on the screen covered in icons, The alerts show the size of the shark, and which inlet or beach it is closest to.” To read the full article click on the link below.

SBS Small Business Secrets

Picture Courtesy: SBS Media

About SharkSmart

What is SharkSmart and how does the app work?

SharkSmart is NSW DPIRD’s shark safety program. It collects shark detection and incident information from several sources, along with locations of shark netting, detection equipment and first aid and trauma kits. App users who have given permission receive push notifications about shark detections and important incidents.

How SharkSmart comes together on M4

SharkSmart has run since 2014. It was originally delivered on Mobiconnect and has since been modernised onto M4, our multi-tenant platform. It runs on M4 today, as the same M4 codebase, released on its own schedule. It uses all three tiers:

Core. Sign-in and roles, workspaces, app users, content, media and API keys, used as they are, together with the AI assistant. The SharkSmart assistant answers questions from the program’s knowledge base.
Extended capability. Core alerts carry species, drumline, beach and detection detail. Push notifications carry species, beach and photo. Scheduled data brings in Bureau of Meteorology tides and forecasts, Beachwatch water quality and timeanddate sun times.
Custom modules. The operator dashboard, drumline and drone operations, and shark tagging and detection are crafted only for SharkSmart and plugged into the core.

Read the SharkSmart case study.

What are the data sources that go into the app?

Figures are as at March 2025.

Tagged shark listening stations

There are 37 tagged shark listening stations deployed on NSW beaches. When a tagged target shark (a White, Tiger or Bull shark) swims within 500m of a tagged shark listening station, the station sends a message to the SharkSmart platform, which generates an alert to the public via the SharkSmart App, push notifications and Twitter/X all in real time. SMART Drumlines

SMART Drumlines

There are 305 SMART Drumlines in 19 coastal local government areas (LGA) from Tweed to Bega, which get deployed daily when weather conditions allow. The drumlines have baited hooks, andwhen a shark takes the bait an alert is sent to the boat crew and DPIRD scientists. Once alerted, the team responds immediately (~within 30 minutes) to tag and release the shark (or other marine animal), and they use the SharkSmart PRO app to notify the platform and send an alert to the SharkSmart app.

Surf Life Saving NSW

Surf Life Saving NSW flies drone surveillance at 50 beaches during school holidays, with at least one drone in every coastal LGA. SLS drone operators are in direct communication with their SLSNSW operations headquarters, who enter dangerous shark detections into the SharkSmart PRO app which generates an alert to the public via the SharkSmart App, push notifications and Twitter/X all in real time

Surfing NSW

Surfing NSW provide trauma kits, drones and training to their ~180 board rider clubs, surf schools and high-performance coaches. A recent development in the partnership following the deployment of drones and pilot training to some clubs has been the capacity to advise DPIRD when they see sharks, and DPIRD will then use the SharkSmart PRO app to generate an alert to the public via the SharkSmart App, push notifications and Twitter/X all in real time.

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