Exclusive: A new surfboard technology is being trialled by Australian scientists as a way to deter great white sharks from attacking surfers.
Spearheaded by sensory biologist, and avid surfer, Dr Laura Ryan from Macquarie University, the new technology being tested uses specially-designed lights on a board while in the ocean as a way to reduce the risk the sharks coming into contact with a person.
Dr Ryan said the trial involved putting lights on the bottom of some seal-shaped decoys, and recording how many great white sharks attacked them.
Of the decoys which were bitten – they compared the number of the decoys with tech attached to the number of decoys without, and found great white sharks were less likely to target decoys with the lighting attached.
By changing the silhouette of a human or surfboard using light, she said they were able to “change white shark behaviour”.
Dr Ryan, who is working on the trial with Neurobiologist Professor Nathan Hart, said they didn’t initially set out to create shark protection.
But after her research showed that great white sharks struggle to tell the difference between a human and a seal, it become her focus.
“White sharks rely heavily on vision,” Dr Ryan explained.
“We didn’t originally set out to make a deterrent, but through what we learned about sharks, we’ve come up with a device that can be mounted onto surfboards.”
“We found that putting lights on the bottom of seal shaped decoys actually changed the frequency that they bit these decoys.”
Her team found that sharks are less likely to attack brighter objects, and that light splits the silhouette up so it does not appear like prey.
Dr Ryan said many animals in the ocean create their own light to avoid predators, like the firefly squid – a method the tech was loosely developed upon.
She stressed that this technology is species-specific.
It works for great white sharks, but it’s not currently effective against bull sharks that have been the culprit behind many shark attacks in Sydney recently, that forced beaches to be closed.
“Bull sharks rely more on senses like smell and electroreception, so we would need further research to understand how to influence their behaviour safely,” she said.
She added that multi-layered protection in the ocean remains essential and that personal protection allows people to take safety into their own hands.
“As a surfer who particularly enjoys surfing in less crowed areas, I see this as similar to wearing a seatbelt when driving, an additional layer of safety,” she said.
While white shark attacks are not as common as bull sharks, there have been recent sightings across Australia.
On January 27 two divers came within metres of a white shark in the Limestone Coast, South Australia, with further sightings along the coast earlier this year.
One was also spotted by beachgoers along Victoria’s Great Ocean Road in December.
Dr Ryan said that this kind of non-invasive tech is a way to protect sharks, the underwater environment, and the people swimming in it.
“Sharks are rare, but when attacks happen, the impacts are devastating – not just to the victim, but to the family and broader community,” she added.
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Originally published as New light technology trialled by Aussie scientists to deter Great White shark attacks on surfers
