Shark Nightmare Over? Ocean Ramsey Endorses First Shark Repellent That Works on Great Whites

"I have personally tested two of their devices with White sharks…and have seen it work."

I hardly have to paint a picture of the slickly adorable shark whisperer Ocean Ramsey, skin strikingly fair and youthful even on the cusp of middle age and with sculpted platinum hair that swings as if in a shampoo commercial even without a wind machine to blow it.

Magic has a certain fragility and the videos of Ocean Ramsey, who is thirty-nine, petting twenty foot Great Whites and gently easing a hungry tiger back into the water with her hand are as captivating as anything ever filmed in the wild via Attenborough or Goodall.

Now, Ocean Ramsey has gone on the record, as they say, to endorse a made-in-Australia shark repellant for surfers that actually works on Great Whites, which were, until the recent run of bull shark hits, the number one killer of swimmers, divers and surfers in Australia.

Ocean Ramsey writes,

In my hope of helping people to be safer while enjoying the ocean by learning how to coexist with sharks, I wanted to share information about both technological options and other choices/behaviors that can help us adapt to sharks’ sensory systems and ecological role and behavior.

I genuinely care about people and sharks, and I hope fellow surfers, swimmers, and divers might find something here helpful or insightful—or hopefully you already know all of this and can just share w others

I am not invested in or paid by @rpela_sharkdeterrenthowever I have personally tested two of their devices with white sharks, tiger sharks, Galápagos sharks, and sandbar sharks in multiple regions around the world, and have seen it work. 

I also plan to test this device with bull sharks this year (it has already been used by others while surfing around bull sharks.)
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Key takeaways:
• When we enter the ocean, we are entering their wilderness—and that is our choice.
• Sharks are essential for healthy marine ecosystems that humans depend on.
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Highlight info:
Ways to reduce the chance of an adverse interaction:
• Avoid areas near fishing activity
• Avoid natural prey colonies, haul-outs, and dense aggregations
• Educate yourself on seasonal shark aggregation sites
• Minimize splashing and unnecessary noise
• Distort your outline/silhouette when possible
• Stay in shallow water and avoid drop-offs and channels
• Use tools like Rpela, surf near shark spotters/lifeguards, go with friends, etc.
•Avoid flashy, dangling, shiny or high contrast colors
• Educate yourself about seasonal or year-round aggregations and sites. 
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Important note:
This device is not meant to make anyone “invincible.” But when combined with informed, adaptive behavior, it can effectively and powerfully help reduce risk 

If you live in Western Australia, where surfers disappear into the mouths of Great Whites with a reasonable sorta regularity, you can get a government rebate of two hundred bucks.

The Rpela shark deterrent was developed by Dave Smith, a Perth-based surfboard shaper and founder of Surfsafe (later rebranded as Rpela) who said he got “sick of surfers dying.”

The device is a battery-powered, water-activated electric unit embedded in a surfboard or stand-up paddleboard. It generates an electric field that disrupts sharks’ ampullae of Lorenzini, repelling without hurting ’em.

The device weighs a couple hundred grams and uses rechargeable batteries for hours of operation. Current pricing starts at 439 Australian shekels for the complete V2 Pro kit.

Backed by Ocean Ramsey and tested in waters so ridden with sharks it gives a man, or gal, a nervous strain.

Worth a shot, yes?