B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: On Shark Awareness Day, Governor Hochul Distributes New Drones to Take a Bite Out of Dangerous Shark Encounters on Long Island Beaches

"It's - quite a lot of news happening today, but before we get to the topic at hand, I do want to first address the fact that this afternoon, there will be a four o'clock press conference regarding a massive development, so we will wait for the news on what happened with the arrest pertaining to the Gilgo Beach murders.

And so I know there's a community out there that, as the facts unfold, will be sleeping a lot easier tonight. And a lot of families whose lives have been just turned upside down, always wondering, questioning what happened, and will the perpetrator ever be brought to justice - hopefully after further news is unveiled today, that the answer will be yes.

Yes, the day has finally come when someone so depraved of heart who would kill individuals, innocent individuals in the prime of their lives, young lives, is finally brought to justice. So, we are hoping that this will bring justice to this individual, but also peace to the families.

And I, first of all, just want to thank the task force that has really been working hard on this, but especially since it was reconstituted again in January 2022. The Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force, really focusing hard, putting their efforts, their attention, their focus on doing something that needed to be done, which is why we're here today. So to the FBI, the Suffolk County Police Department, led by Commissioner Rodney Harrison, who's, you'll be hearing from later this afternoon. Our Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, DA Ray Tierney, Suffolk County Sheriff's Office, as well as all the partners from Nassau County Police and Law Enforcement here. And to the New York State Police Troop L, which as the information unfolds, we revealed, had a major, major role in the new evidence that resulted in the arrest of this individual.

That's all I can address at this time, but this is a day that is a long time in coming and hopefully a day that'll bring peace to this community and to the family's peace that has been long overdue. So let's take a moment of silence for the victims of those horrific murders. And may God rest their souls.

Today, we are here to talk about making our beaches safe in another way, safe from another kind of predator, the sharks. And I want to thank County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who just went out and toured briefly with me how we're using new technologies to keep the people who love these magnificent beaches - and they are second to none - making them safe, and letting people know that their government is watching.

And if the message can get out to the sharks: we are watching. We're watching from land and sea and air. We just launched some drones today and there's going to be some visual momentarily to show you what that looks like. So thank you, County Executive.

Our Commissioner of State Parks, Erik Kulleseid, who has been working so hard when you think about what he's doing here, but he's been racing up and down the Hudson Valley as we're trying to restore some normalcy to our other State Parks - Bear Mountain, others where there's access. The roads are impassable because of Mother Nature wreaking havoc. And I want to thank you and your teams for just being on the job in such an intense way. You know you love your parks, but you also want to make sure we're protecting our citizens, whether it's from the raging storms and the threatening winds and landslides and all the other effects of the climatic changes, which are unprecedented. But also, protecting our beachgoers all the way here to Long Island.

I also want to recognize some of our state elected officials here. Kevin Thomas, our State Senator. I want to thank him for his work. Taylor Darling, New York State Assembly has joined us. I see Dorothy Goosby is also in the audience, our Senior Councilmember, Deputy Supervisor. And I want to thank everyone else who's joined us, all of the electeds and former electeds and people who just care about this community the way we all do.

And we're also at a beautiful place. This place is a place of learning, a place where families and kids can come to recreate, understand the wild, what is on this beautiful land, the beaches, how magnificent they are, but also what's under the water. So this is an eye-opening experience for young people to come and have a chance to, in this beautiful space, have a chance to learn more.

So it's also not a coincidence that today is National Shark Awareness Day. They've got a day for everything. And you think about the fact that back in 1975, I don't think a lot of people in this room were born then. You all look so young. But also, people didn't think a lot about sharks until 1975, until Jaws premiered in all the theaters.

And so everyone's had this on their minds ever since then. Even if it was their grandparents who saw it, a lot of people were exposed to, you know, that particular story - a place called Amityville, which I'm told is not our Amityville, it's a different Amityville.

But you think about how rare that was - it was a blockbuster story because it was so surreal and so rare. But it's always been in the imagination of beach goers, I guarantee it. We went from having one shark encounter in 2012 to eight a decade later in one year. So, 10-year period, we have one back then, and just last year we had a record eight.

And the sharks are coming closer, and this is the good news - not that they're coming closer, but they're coming closer because the water is more pristine. It's cleaner than it was 50 years ago. And the habitat is moving and the species that they feed off of are coming in closer because we've done such a good job cleaning up the water that people swim in and the fish and sharks live in. So, that is a good thing, but it's also something that we need to be on guard about.

And so, giving the lessons of last summer and seeing the change in sharks' behavior, we knew early on before the season even started, we had to take preemptive steps and get the awareness out there and to do everything we can to keep beach goers safe. So, we're talking about a couple ways we can deploy this, and the County Executive will tell you what he's doing locally as well as what our Commissioner is doing. But part of it was making sure that we have money to embrace the new technologies.

And what I saw on the back of a State Police boat just a short time ago, was the use of drones that are launched by a highly trained young person who is living the dream, given that he was addicted to video games growing up. His words, not mine. But a dream job for him as he's launching drones that are going up in the air, scouring the landscape, literally not just looking at the topical area, but can see the shadows and the movement beneath the service. It was extraordinary and was sending pictures back of us looking at the drone. So, it was really fascinating to see, but I don't assume that many counties have budgeted for drones for shark watching.

So, the State wanted to step up and do our part, and I thank our state legislators for helping with the resources. So, we have a million-dollar plan where we're equipping communities with high tech drones to monitor shark activity. And starting today, we'll be providing over 60 of these drones to communities from Long Island to New York City to Westchester, which is our vulnerable areas. And so, it's not just the drones, which is great, it's also the training and certification that has to follow that. So, those are the steps we're taking. And we want to make sure that none of our communities ever appear on Shark Week, which premieres at the end of the month. But this is an opportunity for us to, again, bring awareness to beach goers, be vigilant, thank our lifeguards on the beaches who are on the front lines.

And we all know there's been a challenge recruiting lifeguards. So, we actually decided last year to pay them more to entice them to work here instead of flipping hamburgers. Come here, we need you, we need you, we need you to help protect our families and our children in particular. So, we're going to be harnessing the power of technology, the human capital of our lifeguards, and making sure we're doing everything we can to literally take the bite out of any future shark encounters here at these beautiful beaches.

So, I want to thank everyone for joining us here today. Again, this is just more of a public awareness moment to just say, "This is out there." It is not a deterrent to come to the beaches. You're not going to find more beautiful beaches than you find in the State of New York anywhere - anywhere. And I'll take on any governor anytime who challenges that - even Florida. Because I'm so proud of what we have here and how we've kept up the beauty of these beaches, especially through the work we do with our State Parks and working with our local county parks personnel.

So, with that, I'll turn it over to Commissioner Kulleseid. If you've had a chance to watch the drones - am I supposed to click something to cue it up to see the technology? Oh, did it already play? Was it great? There you go. See this is the message, you don't see any. So, all the beach goers come, there's nothing there to worry about. That's the message of today. But with that, Erik Kulleseid. Thank you."

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