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New Technology For Beaches Includes Shark Shields And Clever Bouys

New Technology For Beaches Includes Shark Shields And Clever Bouys

Selfies may be more deadly than shark attacks, but Africa is home to some of the world’s most terrifying shark species and tourism officials want to keep them away from the visitors.

New technology that protects people from sharks and vice versa is a surprisingly robust area of research, according to a report in TheConversation.

It’s so important in Australia that New South Wales Premier Mike Bairdarea played host at a recent Shark Summit. Business and research experts gathered Sept. 27 from South Africa, the U.S. and Australia to look at emerging technologies designed to increase protection for swimmers and surfers.

Shark fatalities in Australia remain consistently low — around one person per year — but shark attacks have doubled in since the 1980s and 1990s.

South Africans suffered 20 fatal shark attacks from 2004 through 2014, according to SharkAttackData. Australia had 24 fatal attacks in the same period. The U.S. had 11 shark-attack fatalities — plus more than 500 non-fatal attacks.

Australia is in a hurry to finance a trial using one or more new technologies that demonstrate an “evidence-based scientific approach” to the problem, according to TheConversation.

Technology evaluated at the summit included shark deterrents such as the SharkShield and shark detectors such as the Cleverbuoy.

SharkShield is a personal shark-deterrent device that emits an electrical field, disturbing gel-filled sacs in sharks’ snouts, causing the sharks to spasm, according to FinancialTimes. Its downside? The shark needs to be close for it to work and it won’t stop a shark determined to eat you, according to TheConversation.

CleverBouy is a sonar system incorporating GPS that detects sharks and alerts life guards on the beach, ABC.net reports.

Experts presented a surprising number of different technology from all over the world. These include shark nets such as the Eco Shark Barrier and Bionic Barriers that keep sharks from getting near the beach.

The Sharksafe Barrier is a magnetic barrier with rigid pipes that stick up vertically from the seafloor but some question whether there is evidence to show that magnetic fields can deter sharks, according to TheConversation.

South Africa’s low-tech Shark Spotters Program was part of the discussion. Human spotters on cliffs above the False Bay coastline on the Cape Peninsula use binoculars to spot sharks. If one is spotted, a siren sounds and people leave the beach.

“As a scientist, I only ask that any trial be run in a rigorous scientific manner that will directly and unambiguously test the efficacy of the technology while minimizing ecological impact,” said Jane Williamson, who teaches marine ecology at Macquarie University. “It is important that we get this right, both for people and for the sharks.”