vS
vShark
Coastal intelligence

Experimental prototype — not an official warning system

Public proof

What this data is for, and how the public can keep it independent.

The public-goods opportunity

Dorsal, SharkSmart and Beachwatch already answer “is there an alert?” vShark is the inspectable layer underneath: which feeds are live, which are mock, how a number was made, and what it does not mean. That record is a non-rival civic good — anyone can read it without using it up. vShark is an independent experimental prototype. It is not the NSW Government, DPI / DPIRD SharkSmart, Surf Life Saving Australia, Northern Beaches Council, or the Bureau of Meteorology.

What you can usefully glean

  • Provenance, not permission. The Data page shows which sources are LIVE, MODELLED, MOCK, or still unverified. That is the product.
  • NSW Beachwatch water quality as labelled context (CC BY 4.0) — pollution forecast and lagged lab results, not a vShark swim score.
  • Regional meteo from Open-Meteo (one Northern Beaches centroid, not per-beach SST).
  • Seasonal ecology. Humpback E1 climatology and an Australian-salmon bait-school prior — published phenology, not a whale or fish on the beach today.
  • Citizen science from iNaturalist (research-grade, CC-licensed only). Not official sightings.
  • Media attention via GDELT (how loudly the press is talking). Coverage is not presence.
  • The model, in the open. Methodology publishes the formula, the uncalibrated ×120 index, and forbidden claims. You can argue with it.

You cannot usefully glean “safe to swim”, “no sharks”, patrol flags, or a live tagged detection. Those belong to lifeguards, NSW SharkSmart, Beachwatch and (commercially) Dorsal.

How the public can fund this

vShark should not run a Dorsal-style alert crowdfund. Money here pays for independence of the record: hosting, lawful data agreements, and keeping MOCK labelled.

  • Direct support — donation or invoice to the published operator (set SUPPORT_URL or OPERATOR_EMAIL).
  • Philanthropy / environment funds — coastal literacy, not a warning product. Tied to keeping methodology and the registry public.
  • Council or university research — sponsor a feed (IMOS SST, SharkSmart agreement) without owning the domain science.
  • In-kind data — written licences beat cash if they unlock SharkSmart, BOM, or IMOS.

Do not fund vShark to scrape Instagram, clone Dorsal Scan, or put a 0–100 in a push notification. That would spend the public-good on the wrong job.

A public support URL is not configured yet. Publish OPERATOR_EMAIL or SUPPORT_URL on Vercel to enable it.