AUSTRALIA'S LIFESAVING DRONE

A Pair of Australian swimmers on Thursday became the first people to be rescued in the ocean by a drone-

When the aerial lifesaver dropped an safety device to distressed teens caught in rough seas,

Australia is leading the use of technology in surf lifesaving, with dozens of drones being trialled on beaches around the country.

IN WHAT is believed to be   world-first  drone surf rescue, two boys on Thursday got caught in   three-metre  [10 foot]  swells while swimming off Lennox Head in New South Wales, near the border with Queensland.

Beachgoers onshore raised the alarm to the lifeguards who then alerted the drone pilot, and the aerial  lifesaver was deployed in moments.

''I was able to launch it, fly it to the location and drop the pod in about one or two minutes,'' lifeguard supervisor  Jai Sheridan told the  Gold Coast Bulletin.

''On a normal day that would have taken our  lifeguards a few minutes longer to reach the members of the public.''

Other than a  little weary from their experience the pair was reportedly unharmed.

Along with their ability to spot swimmers in trouble and deliver life saving devices faster than traditional lifesaving techniques, like-

Launching surfboards or rubber dinghies , drones are being used in Australia to spot underwater predators like  sharks and  jellyfish.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE  is being developed using thousands of images captured by a drone camera to build an algorithm  that can identify different ocean objects.

The software can differentiate between sea creatures, like sharks which it can recognize with more than 90 percent accuracy, compared to about 16 percent with the naked eye.