It's called a SharkGuard and it's attached to fishing hooks. It emits a three-dimensional electric field that can be sensed by sharks and rays, which repels them.The technology has already been tested on two longline vessels fishing for bluefin tuna off the south coast of France in July and August 2021,. The results were nothing short of impressive: blue shark accidental catches fell by 91.3 percent while those of stingrays fell by 71.
And SharkGuard is not the only product of its kind out there. Sara Mirabilio, a fisheries specialist at North Carolina Sea Grant, told Bloomberg she tried another prototype in 2021, resulting in the accidental catching of nine shark species falling more than 50 percent."I absolutely believe we can harness this electro-sensory capability of sharks and use it as a deterrent," said Mirabilio.
The SharkGuard capsule, however, is not yet commercially available due to some severe limitations. Its battery must be changed after 65 hours, which would not be practical or possible for fishing vessels.Fishtek is looking into a solution that would see the induction of a charging system that would be built into the bins that store longline hooks allowing a new charging cup to be deployed every time the hooks are.