Posted on 07/17/2021 12:46:01 PM PDT by Capt. Tom
WELLFLEET (CBS) – Just this week, a shark was spotted at Duxbury Beach forcing people out of the water. From flags to signs, to alerts on your phone, if you head to the beach this summer, you’ll know if a shark has been spotted. Numerous sightings over the years have put beachgoers on edge about entering the water. However, there is a new electrical shark deterrent product that may allow people and sharks to coexist in the ocean.
“We really want to encourage people to be safe in and out of the water,” says Olaf Valli owner and president of SICKDAY Surf Shop.
Valli has felt the impact to his business from the recent shark sightings over the years, but there is one product that has been gaining popularity.
“I put Shark Shield on my boards… Why not reduce the risk if you can… you should,” Valli said.
It’s a technology that many local surfers have been using, to keep sharks away.
“The Shark Shield by Ocean Guardian, that system works off of an electrical pulse, that interferes with the sensory organ in the nose of the sharks, and it’s very effective,” explains Valli.
A sticker like decal is placed at the bottom of a surfboard. It has two electrodes connected to a power supply on the opposite side. When activated, a three-dimensional electrical field of protection is produced under the water repelling the sharks.
The personal shark deterrent product at SICKDAY Surf Shop in Wellfleet is flying off the shelves and the company that makes this, has even bigger plans for Cape Cod.
“We actually have a newer product, which is getting a lot of discussion on Cape Cod in the moment, the beach barrier, so it’s a larger scale product that can protect people going out into the water,” Amanda Wilson, General Manager of Ocean Guardian explains.
The Beach Barrier comes after decades of success from the company’s technology used by divers, surfers, fisherman and boaters.
“So, it’s basically the same thing but a much larger scale product. So, we’re running power from the land, so it’s just large cable with antennas dropping down into the water, and we’re creating a virtual net, that the sharks can’t penetrate,” Wilson says.
This virtual net is designed to replace drumlines and physical nets, with no impact to the ecosystem of the ocean.
“So, the benefit to our technology, it doesn’t cause that damage, we’re not going to kill turtles or whales or anything else that could potentially get caught in a net,” Wilson explains.
All while reducing the risk of encountering a shark in the water.
“Because everybody wants to go out and enjoy their favorite sport, but they don’t want that worry of sharks… because there are sharks, you can’t get away from it on the Cape,” Wilson says.
Studies still need to be done to determine the effectiveness of this kind of shark deterrent will work in the water off our coast, but Ocean Guardian states there are no known harmful effects on sharks or humans.
Shark threads are better click bait?
I’m riding in on somebody .. I don’t care about sharks ... I don’t click .... but I don’t know who’s pulling me.
I was at New Symrna beach in Florida about 20 years ago and the surfers were nonchalantly surfing in between a lot of shark fins in the water as if they do it every day. I asked one of the surfers on the beach if he wasn’t worried about surfing among those sharks. His answer - “Nahh, they don’t bother you if you don’t bother them.”
That is pretty much the story with all the species we encounter including our own. But have in the back of your mind; "Until they do." - Tom
Orca known to kill sharks to eat the liver.
Seems I read that the smell of shark liver
causes any shark that smells it
to vacate the area.
Always wondered why they don’t make
shark liver repellant.
A lotion like sun screen, cept grosser /-).
.
Sounds very promising..a win win. In my younger days I used to swim in the ocean..a lot! Mainly Rhode Island’s Scarborough beach...a good distance swim between breakers. That was pre Jaws. I knew they were out there...but didn’t think about it. I’m hopeful for such a device for all, even though my days of open swum like that are behind me.
Amanda Wilson, General Manager of Ocean Guardian needs to drop the word “so” from her vocabulary. Sounds juvenile.
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