Great white shark researchers working off the coast of Cape Cod have finished up for the season after tagging 31 new sharks.
For the first time, they also tested how well drones work in detecting sharks near the shore.
State shark expert Greg Skomal says drones have been suggested as a way to alert swimmers to the presence of sharks.
He says his team is now analyzing the data.
“In many cases the drones can see these sharks," he said.
"But we want to see under what conditions the drones can’t detect these sharks. And what conditions they can detect the sharks."
Skomal says his team will be investigating the times when the sharks' tags pinged the acoustic buoy array but were not detected by the drones.
“If we can’t see the shark, why?" he said.
"Is it the time of day, is it turbidity, is it other conditions that might be preventing us from detecting the presence of that animal?"
Over the last ten years the state and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy have tagged 277 great white sharks.