I cannot stand it when people bring drones to what are supposed to be quiet, natural spaces. I see people flying them in parks all the time now. That buzz is very annoying on its own. But I also just do not like the idea that someone may be spying on me or members of my family. It just feels extra predatory when there are children under their cameras.
I also don’t get why there is no enforcement, although I am guessing it comes down to mundane things like the politics of funding. I recently saw someone flying a drone at a ferry terminal. There are several signs saying that flying drones in the area is illegal per federal law (which was news to me). But it doesn’t matter when there is no one to enforce these laws - they might as well not exist. And as a private citizen, I always find it awkward to call people out on anything - whether it is a drone, or an off-leash dog, or whatever. Forget the awkwardness, some people can be aggressive. I want to be able to rely on public officers to enforce the law.
The entire article is about the potentially deleterious effect they are having on local birds. Right now its understudied and evidently not been used for rescues which puts the entire program into question.
But that sounds boring and reasonable. Who cares that the whole project costs a lot, is apparently wildlife endangering, and has dubious benefits. Drones go brrrr, look like fancy future tech and I can put it in my CV to impress my next employer.
That "brrr" sound is from the rotors which allow a drone to fly around like a goddamn magic wizard floating eyeball spell. I don't know about you, but I can't levitate over the water and fly over the beach at 25+ mph. If you could do that, you'd have one helluva CV with which to impress an employer and wouldn't need be all jealous about it.
Where are they going to find them? Ocean lifeguarding isn't an easy certification that any kid can do out of high school like the Red Cross pool lifeguard stuff.
Most of the people who have it live on the West coast or down south in Florida, where most of the training programs are. Why would they move up to NYC where the weather sucks, they can only work half the year, and the cost of living is through the roof?
That is the metric of people who handle money and have a budget. Which happens to be the people that make decisions in situations like these and many others. You can be appalled all you want but if your idea is not affordable by the city is just not gonna get done.
New York City has no trouble staffing a great number of niche specialists. Somehow the parks department can find FAA licensed drone operators, but they are unable to find some lifeguards? And the issue is not just ocean lifeguard certification. The city also has a shortage of lifeguards for their pools which now need to operate at ~30% capacity during the summer.
The issues fall with the lifeguard union combined with absurd legal/safety requirements combined with rampant mismanagement. Frankly it is pretty upsetting to go to the beach in Far Rockaway, where you must be corralled into the one jetty that has all the lifeguards (spaced about 50 feet apart). The parks department of course has resources to deploys people with whistles to walk up the beach and yell at anyone getting too close to the water.
Because the program is run by the NYPD, so already high cost. Who purchase the drones from some contractor at most likely elevated cost. This doesn’t account for all the training costs on specialized equipment.
Hiring life guards for a few months is a drop in the bucket that has proven more results than drones dropping a raft operated by an organization that doesn’t even teach CPR.
[0] NYC drones fleet continues to expand The NYPD paid $87,750 in June for a Lemur 2 drone manufactured by Seattle-based drone company BRINC
That was just for two drones one year ago. The NYPD has many more than 2 drones. That doesn’t include operator salaries, benefits, training, etc. Furthermore there is no reason why the NYPD needs to be the one budgeting and handling this at all. This is just another land grab by a very bloated and out of control crony organization.
Effective life guards often need to be well trained and physically selective, and observant and not distracted over a pretty long time. Hiring untrained, minimum wage teenagers may tick the box of "Has life guard", but not necessarily "/Effective/ life guard"
So, is it really cheaper to "just get more effective life guards?"
> I suspect if they put the drone budget into lifeguard pay, they'd find quickly they no longer have a problem recruiting.
The problem may be Management-Class people who think it is unethical to pay above the bottom quartile in pay or to accept less than the top quartile in talent.
I believe the Management-Class is the cause of most of our problems.
I define Management-Class as people who yell at and fire people whose jobs they could never do.
If they don't have enough lifeguards on duty, how are the drones supposed to work? They find a person drowning, then communicate that to a life guard who is so far away they can't do anything about it? I get how they could spot sharks in the area and send a signal that can be followed up on, but a person drowning is a pretty time-sensitive situation, so if you don't have someone on hand, what do you do about it?
I guess the goal is that the drone can intervene before CPR is necessary.
But there's always a limit in capabilities - providing better access to some help is clearly still of benefit, providing faster access to limited capabilities over a wider area may be a better end result than the same resources being used for higher capabilities, but more limited reach.
The same argument could be made in the other direction though. More, but worse, coverage could lead to behavioral changes that result in worse outcomes. Specifically, people feel more confident and go swimming when normally they'd only do so in lifeguarded waters.
Really we need to wait and see what the data shows (if they review it), as the article states for now they haven't performed any rescues.
While tech advances are cool, I secretly do too. Like Mother Nature's vengeance and reminder that technology isn't invulnerable. Now if critters could just disable Russian tanks, the circle would be complete.
* They will eat almost anything and will employ different techniques from hunting for live prey to opportunistic filching of dead fish and other animals' food.
* They have an enourmous range and are very adaptable. One South American species nests in a waterless desert and brings water and food from the ocean to its young, a distance of up to 100km. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc331083/)
Anecdotally, I'm pretty sure they keep a long memory and can recognize people like corvids are known to do - I used to work near the beach, and a particular seagull would fly up to me, and only me, for a period of about 2 years because I would give him food scraps. Never did it for any of my other coworkers. Was always amazed by that.
Most people seem surprised to learn they live for 30+ years
I saw a Kittiwake gull in Florida once and then the same year visited their nesting grounds in Iceland. I can’t believe such a tiny little bird can fly that far and survive. That being said the one in Florida was probably lost lol
I'm glad it's more accurate, but now I'm disappointed. The title has me picturing people in wetsuits with harpoons rising from the water and spearing drones out of the sky!
Yeah I have heard lots of birders say that but its just a synonym for “gull”, I don’t see why its bad. They mostly live by the sea, seems fitting to me.
Updated: They're not actually seagulls. They're oystercatchers.
> We have updated this post to reflect the fact that the birds in this story are not, in fact, seagulls. We regret the error, but also I am not an ornithologist, people.
I also don’t get why there is no enforcement, although I am guessing it comes down to mundane things like the politics of funding. I recently saw someone flying a drone at a ferry terminal. There are several signs saying that flying drones in the area is illegal per federal law (which was news to me). But it doesn’t matter when there is no one to enforce these laws - they might as well not exist. And as a private citizen, I always find it awkward to call people out on anything - whether it is a drone, or an off-leash dog, or whatever. Forget the awkwardness, some people can be aggressive. I want to be able to rely on public officers to enforce the law.