This Technology Shocks Sharks to Save Them
Industrial fishing kills tens of millions of sharks every year. The SharkGuard attaches to fish hooks and sends out an electrical pulse that repels the animals to keep them from taking the bait.
A photograph of a blue shark taken by an underwater pole camera during a juvenile shark survey.
Photographer: Mark Conlin/Southwest Fisheries Science Center/NOAA
Tuna sashimi may be tasty but every bite comes with a high body count: the millions of sharks killed each year when they’re inadvertently caught by industrial fishing vessels. Now a new technology has shown promising results in sharply reducing the slaughter of a top predator key to keeping ocean ecosystems healthy.
Called a SharkGuard, the cylindrical device is attached to a baited fishing hook and emits a three-dimensional electric field that can be sensed by sharks and rays. The electrical pulse overstimulates the animal’s electroreceptors that it uses to locate prey, and like fingernails on a chalkboard, repels the shark away from the hook.