CLIENT: Dorsal Watch
OUTLET: 7 News, Sunrise, & News Corp syndication
Official shark monitoring only ever tells half the story. A significant number of shark sightings across Australia each year are never reported to any government or lifesaving platform at all, seen by a member of the public and shared nowhere beyond word of mouth. In states like Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, there is no official public shark sighting platform to report to in the first place.
That's the gap Dorsal Watch, Australia's largest community-powered shark reporting and alert network, was built to close. The platform combines verified public sightings with official alerts and distributes them in near real time, and is now building a smartwatch app designed to reach people in the water at the very moments they need it most, including at dawn and dusk, on remote stretches of coastline, and outside the hours when official drone surveillance programs are operating.
The story was featured across 7 News, Sunrise, News Corp syndication, and ABC radio coverage, shining a well-deserved national spotlight on the work of Dorsal co-founder and former professional surfer Sarah Beardmore. With more than 750,000 users, 627,000 social followers and 255,000 email subscribers, and having ranked as the second most downloaded free sports app in Australia over summer 2025/26 behind only the Australian Open, Dorsal is emerging as an essential layer of ocean safety infrastructure for Australian beach communities. The company is now opening an equity crowdfunding raise on Birchal to fund its next stage of growth, including smartwatch alerts, drone integration and new surf intelligence tools.