BOURNE, MASS. (WHDH) - Like a fisherman reeling in a big catch, maybe even a shark, a Miami-based tech company sends a “SmartBalloon” out over the waters off Cape Cod in search of sharks.
A 4K camera equipped with a powerful zoom lens is attached to the small blimp and is capable of transmitting images to the ground, piquing the interest of several shark-infested communities looking to get a heads up on incoming predators.
‘You can see a shark in the water, as long as the water is not too muddy. No problem,” Altametry’s Chief Engineer Candido Hernandez said. “On a clear day, you can see for a couple of miles no problem.
Great white shark sightings and attacks are becoming more common and Cape Cod communities that depend on summer tourism are now looking for efficient ways to track the beasts of the sea.
“This blimp literally can stay up for days,” John Ciampa Altametry’s founder and CEO, said. “If each blimp can watch a half a mile, 15 blimps could monitor the whole outer-Cape.”
Ciampa, a native of Boston’s North End neighborhood, said his patented blimp can be used in conjunction with sonar buoys.
“The sonar buoys are going to tell you the shark is by my side right now,” he said. “This is going to tell you the shark is moving from Nauset to Wellfleet at 35 miles an hour. So you’ve got more time to give the bathers a chance to get out of the water than you would with a sonar buoy.”
The blimps, which do not need to be constantly controlled, cost about $12,000 apiece, depending on the quality of the camera attached.
Altametry hopes they will see a spike in sales in the Massachusetts area in the future.
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