A scuba diver prepares to go under sea with a Shark Shield. When a shark swims into the device’s range, an electrical pulse causes spasms in the shark, driving it away from the diver. The shield also aids surfers, especially those who visit the shark-plentiful waters on the West Coast.
Editor’s note: This is a regular series that profiles recreational activities in which students take part. If you hunt, fish, climb rocks, go canoeing or are an expert spelunker, The University Daily Kansan would like to share your story. Please contact Caleb Regan by calling the Kansan sports desk at 864-4858 or by e-mailing him at cregan@kansan.com.
The fear of coming into contact with a shark can make some leery about braving the ocean.
But new technology aims to help those terrified of shark attacks, though experts say it will benefit surfers and commercial divers more.
In March 2002, Sea Change Technology of Adelaide, Australia, completed the first manufacture and distribution of the Shark Shield. The shield costs $469 and establishes a barrier around divers, swimmers and surfers using electronic pulses that cause discomfort to the sensory system and muscles of a shark.
All sharks have a sensory system on the side of their snouts. The system of gel-filled pores detects electronic pulses in the open water. Sharks detect food this way because the heartbeat of a seal, fish or human emits a certain frequency of electric pulse through the water.
The Natal Sharks Board, which developed the precursor to the Shark Shield, found that a certain electrical pulse causes discomfort and spasms to the muscles of sharks.
Dave Bach, dive master and director of training at the Scuba Shack, 1045 New Jersey St., said all that was left for Sea Change to do to Shark Shield was to create a device easily equipped for ocean-going people that would create this barrier of the determined frequency.
“It’s comparable to a shock collar for dogs. After a shark has been shocked once, he’s not going to penetrate that field again.”
Eric Schaumburg, Prairie Village senior, said he’d be more likely to try scuba diving with the new technology.
“I would like the idea of encountering and seeing sharks if I felt well protected,” he said.
Fear of coming into contact with sharks has kept prospective divers from braving the open water. Bach said those nervous feelings usually fade with the first dive.
“New divers have fears of the unknown,” he said. “But once you get down there, it’s so inspiring and beautiful most people I’ve trained lose the uneasiness.”
As for Shark Shield’s use for recreational scuba divers, he said he thinks it is unnecessary.
“There is such a huge misconception with sharks created by Hollywood. In warm waters down around the Bahamas and Florida, you don’t see shark attacks happening to divers.”
The shark attacks, he said, usually come from great whites and tiger sharks in colder waters along the West Coast.
Bach said he would never use the device on a recreational dive.
“For commercial divers, who are working and not necessarily paying attention to their surroundings, or for surfers, who have the tendency to look like seals from below, the Shark Shield is great,” he said. “But for recreational scuba divers, the idea is usually to encounter and swim around with these creatures rather than to repel them.”
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