The Magnetic Sense That Could Save Sharks

It is not your bleeding but your breathing that enables a shark to locate you in water. As your heart beats it releases electric impulses that flow with a magnetic field.

It is the same information that has been used by scientists from the University of Stellenbosch to develop shark barriers. These barriers will protect swimmers from the sharks and sharks from frightened swimmers. The barriers will also protect other sea creatures from shark nets.

Why protect a predator?  “Sharks play a critical role within the marine ecosystem,” said Craig O’Connell, who’s a PhD candidate and research fellow at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Stellenbosch University respectively.

There are beach nets and yes they do provide maximum safety for the swimmer but the opposite goes for the shark population.

The main threat to sharks everywhere is fishing and this has even led to the great white shark being declared a vulnerable species.

Sharksafe is a magnetic barrier being worked on by O’Connell and his team of researchers. This barrier will keep sharks away from beaches and also protect other marine creatures.

The team bases its technology on the sixth sense of sharks and that is the ability to perceive magnetic fields. This brings about the question if sharks make use of sensory organs?

The sensory organs used by sharks are known as ampullae of Lorenzini and they are located in their heads. This is what enables them to note electromagnetic radiation. It is even reported that sharks have the greatest sensitivity than any other animal when it comes to electricity.

The SharkSafe barrier involves placing magnets in Perspex tubes, which are disguised as a kelp forest. “The point is to mimic a kelp forest so that it [appeals] to the shark’s visual system and magnetic electro-sensory system,” O’Connell said.

They have been doing this work on a larger scale at Dyer Island and so far have been successful as they report that more than sixty sharks never crossed the barrier though they interacted with it.

The project gets logistic support from Professor Conrad Matthee - Stellenbosch University’s principal Investigator of the university’s evolutionary genomics group.

Professor Conrad said that the next stage will be an exclusion barrier whereby sharks can never come in. He and his partners are testing this on the white shark. They have tested the same on Zambezi and tiger sharks.

The sharks do get a little discomfort which O’Connell described as normal. Their efforts are driving at keeping people and sharks apart without getting the animal hurt in the process.

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Based in California, Stanford Magnets has been involved in the R&D and sales of licensed Rare-earth magnets, Neodymium magnets and SmCo magnets, ceramic magnets, flexible magnets and magnetic assemblies since the mid of 1980s. We supply all these types of magnets in a wide range of shapes, sizes and grades.