The Seal Beach Marine Safety (lifeguard) Department has a drone. A drone is a small, remote controlled aircraft without people aboard it. The Seal Beach city government does not currently have a policy covering the use of drones.
The issue came up at Monday’s City Council study session on the capital improvement (Public Works) projects for this year and the next five years.
District Four Councilman Gary Miller asked for a drone policy to be on a future council agenda after a Seal Beach resident asked the council to develop one.
Seal Beach Lifeguard Chief Joe Bailey said his department recently acquired a drone for $1,400. The intent was to use the drone to film the Junior Lifeguard program participants.
Then sharks—juvenile great whites—were reported off Surfside Colony, which is in Seal Beach.
Bailey said it took about two hours to have one staff member get on a jet ski, go looking for sharks and then come back.
Bailey said it was definitely faster to deploy the drone. It was also a better way to find the sharks.
According to Bailey, when you send a lifeguard out on a jet ski, the lifeguard can only see the sharks at about 5 feet below the surface and they are hard to see. They also tend to scatter when a jet ski approaches.
A drone can view the water from 100 to 180 feet above the surface—high enough to cover a wide area yet close enough to see them.
Bailey said he hadn’t tested the limits of the drone.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, public unmanned air systems must fly less than 400 feet above ground.
Dr. Robert Goldberg, a resident who is known for monitoring the city budget, said he supported the purchase of the drone but asked for a policy to protect the public’s privacy.
Councilman Gary Miller also wanted a policy for city drones.
Bailey told the council that his staff was working on a department policy. He said he was committed to keeping the Lifeguard drone over the water and away from houses.
The charity and business communities have already been using drones in recent years.
Run Seal Beach, for example, used a drone to record this year’s race from above. Run Co-Director Marc Loopesko showed some of the footage to the City Council this week.
Local real estate agent Nat Ferguson sometimes uses drones to sell beach-area properties. He gets help from a hobbyist with a drone.
Ferguson said the regulations for private use are generally that the drone must fly low enough to be in the line of sight.
Ferguson said that while the use of drones is not for every listing, a drone can give the user an experience almost like walking down the street. He said the drone can help show where a property is located in relationship to points of interest in a way that a two-dimensional map can’t.
Meanwhile, Seal Beach lifeguards will continue using the drones to keep an eye on the sharks. The 5- to 6-foot long juvenile great whites are still off the Surfside area, so warning signs will remain on the city’s beaches. Bailey said there have been no sightings—confirmed or unconfirmed—of sharks near the main beach.
