Over the last three years we've been funded by the state government through
the Applied Research shark mitigation program
it's allowed us to test existing shark deterrent devices currently on the market
to provide the public with some assurance that they actually work
the Sharks are adorned with a very sensitive electroreceptors system so the
shark shield would produce a very strong electric field which would over
stimulate the electro receptors and of course
deter the sharks at the same time and we suspended the the shark shield on a
mid-water rig so we suspended this in the water column and we attracted great
white sharks with a bait canister and we used to control to assess the
effectiveness of an active shark shield vs. and inactive shark shield one of the
reasons that we were drawn to Mozzle Bay in South Africa was the existence of a
large seal colony within the by this is the view that scene by the stereo
cameras you can see the white white box there which attracts them to come
towards the the rig and the device we can see here that the visibility is low
as it always is in South Africa but can also see the great whites coming in but
are being deterred by the active shark shield
they're coming within about one point three metres or so but they're always
changing their behavior away from the strong electric field emanating from the
shark shield as you can see here this is a large four metre long great white
approaching an inactive shark shield where it's attracted by the bait and is
in fact
mouthing the the inactive shark shield
this was one of over 300 encounters and one of 40 individual great white
sharks that we were able to
monitor during the study. In this research allowed us to very accurately
determine the proximity of which sharks would approach and we found with this
that when the device was active sharks upon their initial approach would only
approach to approximately 1.3 meters from the device now over subsequent
encounters the Sharks would actually approached slightly closer each time so
they would habituate to the device over time and so there was an overall
deterrent effect from the device
however it's important to note that this is not a hundred percent and so there
was one occasion during the testing where a shark did actually interact with
the device while it was active
although this was certainly a reduced interaction compared to when the device
was inactive so this was more just the sharp bumping the device as opposed to
actually biting during the control testing when the device was inactive so
with the results of this test and we now know specifically the electric field
characteristics that will deter a white shark
it's important to note that although the shaft seal freedom 7 was shown to be
very effective in deterring white sharks
this result would not necessarily translate to other electric deterrents.
Research was important to us to use their knowledge of the sensory systems
of sharks and their relatives to try and develop novel deterrence and test
existing deterrence this device is no guarantee of avoiding shark attack
unfortunately these are large and rather unpredictable animals
I would hesitate to say that no deterrent currently on the market and
probably
entering the market in the future we'll be able to one hundred percent guarantee
safety but with the this device and our work
the shark shield under the conditions we've tested it certainly is the most
effective shark to deterrent device currently on the market.