FAQs

Dorsal was created in Australia after the wave of shark sightings and attacks around the wider Ballina region in 2014/15 and was kicked into gear when a Tasmanian diver was killed in front of his daughter by a 4.5m White Shark.

In many of these cases, people had reported seeing a shark in the area the day prior but had no way to alert anyone about it. On the flip side, there was no central portal for people to access sightings from around their area before entering the water.

After doing some research, we quickly realised there were no centralised, national solution for reporting / informing about shark sightings and thus, Dorsal was born.

What started as a small side project quickly escalated to the full 360 degree reporting solution for shark sightings Dorsal has evolved to.

It consists of taking Public and Official sightings from various sources and pushing those reports out to the wider community.

The Dorsal solution is made up of several key components, including the Dorsal Scan alert and distribution system that keeps us informed of sightings online, the Dorsal Drone and Dorsal GPS solutions that alert us from sightings in the sky through our partners. Users can also submit reports via the apps and website for verification and distribution by the Dorsal team. Those reports are fed into the backend database that manages the reports and stores all shark reporting data and statistics. Then there is the various outlets for reports including www.dorsalwatch.com website, iPhone and Android apps, Facebook and Twitter pages.

Dorsal is the worlds largest end to end shark reporting and alerts system.

• It is the only solution that reports on official shark sightings as well as allowing the public to submit their own
• It is the fastest way to alert the public to warnings and sightings, with most reports going out in under 5 minutes
• It covers the widest base of communication channels, with web, Facebook, Twitter and iPhone and Android apps all updated at the same time
• It actually pushes alerts to your phone, rather than you having to go and seek the information
• It allows users to customise the app to only receive info based on a 50kms radius of their location or their favourite breaks
• It uses the latest sighting technologies to provide the widest number of sightings

We currently have a system in place for approving Public reports. This includes:

• Submitters providing their email, mobile numbers, GPS location and Facebook profiles for submission
• All reports get vetted by the Dorsal team to ensure the content of the original report is complete and legitimate
• We also filter all images that come through using an integrated Google Image recognition
• Checking the person submitting a report against our Dorsal blacklist, and that their GPS location is within the vicinity of the report submission
• Contacting the user via Instant Messenger, Email, Text or Phone Call to expand on the report

If we aren't satisfied with the original report and/or don't receive any follow up explanations from our enquiries, then the report wont be approved or sent out.

Please note that all Dorsal users agree to be bound by the Dorsal Terms and Conditions found here: https://www.dorsalwatch.com/termcondition/.

If any reports are submitted that don't meet the criteria or the submitter fails to respond to communication seeking verification from Dorsal, they are deleted from the backend.

Where a report falls through the cracks and is published and only to be found to be fake, we remove the report from all channels and block the person from the system. If necessary, the offenders details are also passed on to the relevant authorities.

As per our verification procedure, only vetted reports get approved and sent out.

If your report has not gone live, it is likely we have asked for further information from you. We generally hold reports on file for 24hrs while we wait for additional info.

To find our questions, please go to any of the following:

• Your Notifications on your Phone – you would normally receive an Instant Message from us with queries relating to your report
• Your Report or Profile Page in the App – all Instant Messages get stored in both of these areas on the App
• Your nominated Email account – be sure to also check your Junk folder
• Your text messages

Also, if you report is over a day old, it wont get pushed to Dorsal users, however it will be available on the App, Website and stored in the database for people to view.

If you have not received any message and your report is legitimate, then please contact us via email at info@dorsalwatch.com.

At Dorsal, we have a policy of reporting all sightings that are up to a day old.

There are several reasons for this:

1. We can only report sightings when we are given them, which can often be a day late. Coupled with trying to verify the content, this can cause delays of minutes to hours.

2. We also add reports that are older than a day old to the database to help people know about sightings in their area. Often people will look at up to a month of sightings, which means we need to keep old sightings on file

3. Finally, while sharks do travel great distances, they can often hang around. The very reason this service started is because there have been incidents where people who were attacked the day after a sighting of a similar shark in the exact same area

Dorsal is a risk reduction service, not a failsafe solution to protecting yourself from sharks.

We certainly can't monitor every shark in the ocean or capture and provide details on every sighting from the public or officials.

We make no warranties as to the accuracy of the information provided, either from Official or Public channels.

We do our best to verify them as quickly and accurately as possible, but ultimately the user needs to make their own mind up about the hazards associated with entering what is the sharks natural habitat.

You should follow some of these well know risk reduction strategies as well as consider the various repellent devices as part of your wider personal risk reduction strategy.

Please note that all Dorsal users agree to be bound by the Dorsal Terms and Conditions found here: https://www.dorsalwatch.com/termcondition/.

Dorsal is currently available in Australia, Mainland USA, Hawaii and Reunion Island.

We also don't want accidental or hoax reports coming from around the world given how time consuming each report is to verify, so we limit the availability of the app.

We will be expanding to other regions such as South Africa in the near future. If you would like to see Dorsal expand to your region, please don't hesitate to get in contact at info@dorsalwatch.com

Dorsal currently services over 500, 000 people across its apps, social pages and websites.

Due to limited resources our API documentation is not public however feel free to contact us for collaborations and partnership opportunities.

The app is free to download however you can opt in to support our work and services by joining Dorsal Premium for $9.99 a year. This will grant you access to notifications to your phone for shark sightings around your GPS and favourite beaches, an ad-free experience as well as other exclusive Dorsal Premium features.

It was designed primarily for surfers given many of the attacks have involved surfers, but it is available for everyone to be aware, including ocean swimmers, fishermen and divers.

Not in the short term. We are currently looking at this but it is a low priority. You can access the reports from any of the non-app based sources listed below

Yes, we are currently looking at an SMS and 1800 number solution for those who want to use these services.

We are currently working on a new waterproof wearable that will hook up to the various data sources to alert people while in water.

More info will be available on this shortly, however it is still a little while away.

iPhone:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dorsal-shark-alerts-reports/id1045887929?mt=8

Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.fruitful.dorsal

Web:

http://www.dorsalwatch.com

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/dorsalaus

https://www.facebook.com/dorsalhaw

https://www.facebook.com/dorsalusa

https://www.facebook.com/Dorsal-Reunion-Island-101759551297381

Twitter

http://www.twitter.com/dorsalaus

http://www.twitter.com/dorsalhaw

http://www.twitter.com/dorsalusa

Https://twitter.com/dorsalri

General Enquiries:

info@dorsalwatch.com

Australian Enquiries:

info@dorsalwatch.com

USA Enquiries:

info@dorsalwatch.com

Hawaii Enquiries:

info@dorsalwatch.com