While the brunt of winter is still ahead for the U.S. and Canada, Australia is getting ready for summer, and one company is looking to make it safer for beach goers.
Life Saving Victoria, a company that works to prevent aquatic-related deaths and injuries in the southeastern state of Victoria, is launching a new SMS service to notify subscribers of shark attacks.
The announcement of the service follows an unusually high number of unprovoked shark attacks countrywide. There were 22 shark attacks in 2015, and many of them gained higher exposure as several of the victims were professional surfers.
Life Saving Victoria has yet to finalize its plans, but hopes that many will use it to stay safe. The Huffington Post also reported that the service, once launched, will be particularly useful to those who frequent beaches that aren't normally monitored.
It is not yet known exactly how Life Saving Victoria would get the shark attack data, but the neighboring state of New South Wales recently announced a funding plan for using aerial drones to monitor shark movements along their coastlines. that information is then funneled into an application that provides risk assessments for coastal areas.
Though smartphone applications can provide assistance in this area, Life Saving Victoria is opting for the for the immediacy and near-perfect open rates of SMS to conduct its service.
Speaking with the Sunday Herald Sun, Life Saving Victoria operations manager Greg Scott said that his team is looking into how people are advised about other emergencies, such as brush fires, as a baseline for how the program should run.
Bulk SMS solutions can help make sure that the appropriate parties receive valuable information quickly and efficiently.
