Adam Fitzroy has stepped up drone game as another summer approaches.
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Flying his drone almost daily, Mr Fitzroy has captured countless beautiful images of marine life swimming off the Mid-North Coast of NSW.
His images have received national exposure - and with that criticism, too, especially in relation to footage of great white sharks cruising popular Tuncurry surfing spot, Nine Mile Beach.
In response to claims he was only waiting for someone to get bitten, he decided to do something.
Finding little on the market in the way of drone alarms, he decided to make one himself.
"It was so simple and effective it took me five minutes to make and two minutes to think about," he said.
Mr Fitzroy was reluctant to describe it in too much detail, but as he's in the process of patenting his design, but said it was essentially a 140dB alarm fitted to the drone and powered by internal batteries.
I want to establish a solid relationship with surfers and swimmers.
- Adam Fitzroy
He also believed it was only right to do something given the hundreds of sharks he'd spotted off local beaches in the last two months alone.
"I had to take some kind of initiative because of the amount of shark sightings," he said.
"It's not my responsibility to patrol beaches but if I do see some kind of imminent danger I want to be able to alert people."
With his drone now equipped to capture more than just great images, he's determined to let surfers and swimmers know they've got a friend in the sky.
"I want people to know if they see my drone and I sound my alarm it's to warn them," he said. "Otherwise all is well."
Getting the message out there had taken on even more importance as the first time Mr Fitzroy was forced to sound his alarm it was ignored.
He spotted a large great white swimming worryingly close to a pair of young surfers at Nine Mile Beach last week.
But, when he sounded his alarm they viewed it as a nuisance rather than a warning.
Eventually the shark changed direction and headed out to sea, but the outcome could've been very different.
Of course, Mr Fitzroy admitted there was every possibility the young surfers didn't know what his alarm was about, but that only made him more determined to get his message out there.
"That's my mission," he said. "I want to be an advocate for drone safety."
