Swimming and surfing with sharks: drones and social media change human-shark relations

This paper examines how drone footage of swimmers’ and surfers’ encounters with sharks, shared through social media, is reshaping public understandings of sharks and challenging dominant “shark as predator” narratives. Shark encounters are often framed through fear-based media representations that influence public opinion and support ecologically harmful mitigation policies such as shark nets and culls. Digital technologies, particularly drones and Instagram videos, can foster more relational and ecologically aware understandings of human–shark coexistence.

The author used ethnographic methods including participatory fieldwork with surfers and ocean swimmers across multiple Australian coastal sites, 16 in-depth interviews, and analyses of public Instagram accounts sharing drone footage of human-shark encounters. The findings showed that drone footage often portrays sharks as calm, curious, and regularly present in ocean environments rather than as aggressive predators. Participants explained that the footage increased their awareness that people frequently swim near sharks without incident, contributing to more nuanced perceptions of shark behavior and stronger recognition of humans as part of multispecies ocean ecologies.

New techonologies may support more conservation-oriented and ecologically sensitive human–shark relations by challenging fear-based narratives that justify lethal shark management practices. At the same time, the author highlights important ethical concerns related to surveillance, privacy, militarization, and the increasing normalization of drone monitoring in coastal spaces.

CITE: Olive, R. (2025). Swimming with sharks: Drones, social media and ocean relationalities. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 8(4), 1371-1388. DOI: 10.1177/25148486251345997