Why the price? It terrifies Great Whites!
I’ll happily throw absurd amounts of money at anything. But on one proviso. It’s gotta do what it says. If the television is 3-D, I want to have my lungs ripped out by zombies. If the camera’s 4K, I want to see every droplet of saliva on her lips.
So, shark repellants.
Do I want to pay $250 for a leash equipped with magnets that claims to ward off most sharks, with the notable exception of Whites? Uh, maybe not, after reading this.
But, as revealed yesterday, there is a shark repellant that works. The University of Western Australia studied the Shark Shield for two years among the Great White colonies of South Africa and discovered it kept Whites at bay. At least most of the time.
In a peer-reviewed paper, which you can read here if you’ve got time on your hands, researchers found the Shark Shield, an electromagnetic device originally developed by South Africa’s Kwazulu-Natal Sharks Board in the 1990s before being commercialised by the Australian company SeaChange, actually…works.
The results of this study show that the Shark Shield™ can reduce C. carcharias interactions with a static bait (under test conditions), and provides no support to the suggestion that the Shark Shield™ attracts sharks.
The University of WA’s lead researcher, Dr Ryan Kempster, said only one Great White interacted with the static bait in the presence of a switched-on Shark Shield, and this only happened after multiple approaches to the device.
“Although the effectiveness of the Shark Shield likely varies between species, the fact that white sharks are implicated in the majority of fatal incidents globally suggests that a deterrent that effectively deters this species should be an important safety consideration for ocean users,” Dr Kempster said.
“The research found no evidence that the Shark Shield attracted sharks from a greater distance, which is a common sentiment shared by surfers, and showed that the Shark Shield can reduce white shark interactions.”
You want in? Ocean and Earth have partnered with Shark Shield for a device that fits under a tailpad, which you can buy for six hundred dollars. It ain’t my thing, if I’m going to be honest, sticking antennas and whatever else all over my board on the off chance I might get tagged by a White.
But, who knows?
Maybe sharks give you the heebies jeebies so much you’d do anything to calm your fluttery mind.
Study the video tutorial below.
Why would you travel from shark infested WA to South Africa to test it on sharks? Why not stay in your local hood? Ok, surf JBay may be a reason, but in WA you have Whites & Tigers too…
Ah Timmy! I am truly sorry to be a cunt. I check the IP’s now and again to keep the trolls at bay. But in your case I sensed a white lie and investigated…
you are a creep
you killed Timmy
Timmy killed himself… After a tad of internet stalking on my behalf (a cunty move, I must admit) I pulled him up on his little white lie. He didn’t like it, threw his toys out of the cot, told another porkie or two, deleted his account and swore never to return!
id rather get sucked off by a coked out jonny gannon than buy this shit
Necro will do it for about tree fitty.
But only in red.
Visit your Nan? your IP history would suggest you live with her… But hey! it’s the internet man! 2016! You can create whatever fantasy world you like. Timmy the Chief shark wrangler from near Lennox Head does have a certain ring to it.
Can we delete my IP history from jaco last year? Penicillin took care of the other give away.
You’ve changed your Disqus name so many times Im sure even the FBI couldn’t track you.
I heard they raided tom Brady for being suspected of growing weed. Whoops!
Fascinating. Whats my IP history say? I have downloaded a lot of torrents for TV shows this year.
You should be excepting a knock on the door from Sony Entertainment lawyer’s any day now…
Maybe its time we drop the “Great” from their name. Its clearly gone to their heads and inflated their ego. The band “Great White” tried valiantly albeit unsuccessfully to harness the power of “Great”; and in the end how fucking “great” were they? They sucked.
You tell a white shark he’s “Great” enough and sooner or later, that damn fish is gonna start thinking they’re great. The problem was only further reinforced when the white shark was no longer fished. From their perspective, they’re thinking “those pussies don’t even have the balls to fish for us”.
The psychological approach! I like it!
We should reach out to this seal. He clearly loves fucking with the emotions of a white shark. Intimate knowledge of their psychological weaknesses. Imagine the shit talking going on
“That all you got, George…?”
I don’t trust
I suppose Balgowlah is near Lennox on a global scale.
Give that old cunt Huff my regards.
whatever gets you through the night Timmy.
there is truth in what you say about sharks deterring people.
Last winter was insanely uncrowded here…….lots of good to perfect Point surf with fukall humans.
full of bull sharks.
I thought Timmy was a pulitzer prize winning author from “merica.
does anybody admit to living in lismore?
You obviously live in a relatively Shark free environment aye Timmy?
The only deterrent I have seen is your fists and an expensive board.
i have a picture of white lightening on the underside of the board. those fuckers were schooled and word has spread through neptune’s realm..
I’m of the unpopular opinion that Mick Fanning cried to Brazilian Jesus while behind that wave. I do not believe he laid a fist on the fish.
haha true that. Then again, truth should never get in the way of a good story.
There is a rule for writers: The more truth you mix in with a lie, the stronger it gets.
This is lazy journalism by Derek. If you research you’ll find the actual sharkshield device UWA tested is the big fat antenna that hangs off the back of a board and electrocutes you as you paddle! This tailpad device on the otherhand is about 20% as powerful, NOT scientifically tested and probably completely ineffective. I’ve said it before the only deterrent that actually works for surfers is the RPELA detachable device built into a surfboard that send out a way bigger frequency than this shit. Everyone is using RPELA here in west oz and so far so good. RPELA also being used by the Reunion Island government to deter sharks. Shame they aren’t affiliated with a big surf brand… Seriously these tailpads, legropes, magnets are all fuckn useless.
…oh that is a crucial detail! I do admit to a glazing of the eyes after a few hundred words of scientific papers. May I ask: are you involved in RPELA in any way?
Spoken by J Rpela. Authorised by J Rpela for the Rpela Party.
No affiliation but I live in margs and seen way too many sharks and deaths so started researching this stuff pretty heavily. Even spoke to the professors at UWA who did this study. I think the RPELA is the best one around but its still in pretty early development phase.
that’ll be 0.99 AUD thank you. hate to be bitchy but advertising costs, even on the interwebs.
it’s a BG windfall. the future’s looking rosy hodge.
The future is looking gigantic with a shit accent?