In the last 20 years there have been 6 fatal shark attacks off the coast of Western Australia.
The Western Australian department of fisheries has come up with a novel solution to help warn of nearing sharks. Tag em and track them. Listening stations are to be positioned in 38 locations along the coast including 20 along the coast off Perth. If a tagged shark comes within
400 metres of a listening station a message can be sent to the appropriate lifeguards.
“The use of the technology that delivers real-time notifications of tag detections hasn’t been used in an operational sense anywhere else in the world,” Dr McAuley told the PerthNow website.
Of course not every shark has been tagged! This project has a target of tagging 100 sharks, there are many more out there, though it will give researches a better understanding of sharks habits. How often they visit beaches, is it seasonal, do they return to the same beaches etc.
Still you shouldn’t be too concerned about shark attacks. Whilst there has been 6 fatalities in the last 20 years, in the last year alone 10 people drowned in the surf. So take care over the summer.
More info on The Shark Monitoring Network Program
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Comments ( 2 )
Sounds like a great idea. ^^ I’m gonna digg this.
Uninvoked added these pithy words on
Dec 31 09 at
8:41 pm
Maybe someone can work on a device that will send out an sms when a guy is drowning.
kee added these pithy words on
Jan 02 10 at
1:49 am
