Surfboards with lights could deter shark attacks: "Invisibility cloak"

Covering your surfboard successful agleam lights sounds similar an unfastened invitation to large achromatic sharks, but probe released Tuesday by Australian scientists recovered it mightiness really stave disconnected attacks.

Biologist Laura Ryan said the predator often attacked its prey from underneath, occasionally mistaking a surfer's silhouette for the outline of a seal.

Ryan and her chap researchers showed that seal-shaped boards decked with agleam horizontal lights were little apt to beryllium attacked by large achromatic sharks.

This appeared to beryllium due to the fact that the lights distorted the silhouette connected the ocean's surface, making it look little appetizing.

"There is this longstanding fearfulness of achromatic sharks and portion of that fearfulness is that we don't recognize them that well," said Ryan, from Australia's Macquarie University.

The study, published successful the diary Current Biology, was conducted successful the waters of South Africa's Mossel Bay, a fashionable large achromatic feeding ground.

Seal-shaped decoys were strung with antithetic configurations of LED lights and towed down a vessel to spot which attracted the astir attention.

Brighter lights were amended astatine deterring sharks, the probe found, portion vertical lights were little effectual than horizontal.

Macquarie University Professor Nathan Hart, 1 of the study's authors, said the lights caused a "complex interaction" with the shark's behavior.

"It's similar an invisibility cloak but with the objection that we are splitting the object, the ocular silhouette, into smaller bits," Hart said.

The study's authors released a video showing immoderate of the probe successful action.

Ryan said the results were amended than expected and is present successful the process of gathering prototypes for usage connected the underside of kayaks and surfboards.

Australia has immoderate of the world's astir broad shark absorption measures, including monitoring drones, shark nets and a tagging strategy that alerts authorities erstwhile a shark is adjacent a crowded beach.

Ryan said her probe could let little invasive mitigation methods to beryllium used.

More probe was needed to spot if bull and tiger sharks -- which person antithetic predatory behaviour — responded to the lights successful a akin way, the authors said.

Covering your surfboard successful agleam lights whitethorn deter large achromatic shark attacks, according to probe released Tuesday by Australian scientists. Ryan et al. / Current Biology

There person been much than 1,200 shark incidents successful Australia since 1791, of which 255 resulted successful death, authoritative information shows.

Great achromatic sharks were liable for 94 of those deaths.

The wide fig of deadly shark attacks worldwide successful 2023 remained comparatively low, but it was inactive doubly the erstwhile year's total, according to the latest iteration of the International Shark Attack File — a database of planetary shark attacks tally by the University of Florida. 

The study noted that a "disproportionate" magnitude of people died from shark bites successful Australia last twelvemonth compared with different countries astir the world.

In:
• Great White Shark
• Shark Attack
• Australia