Government News Index
Shield keeps jaws at bay
By Andrew McGarry
The Australian
28mar02
IT'S about the size of a mobile phone and costs nearly $700, but it won't play a DVD, connect to the internet or organise your social life, just stop you becoming shark bait.
The release of the SeaChange Shark Shield, launched yesterday in Adelaide by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, is timely given the publicity surrounding the shark feeding frenzy at a surf life-saving carnival on the Gold Coast last week and an attack yesterday in Hawaii.
The shield, to be produced for the worldwide market by Adelaide company Clipsal, sends electrical signals that repel sharks by affecting receptors on their snouts.
The signals cause increasing discomfort as sharks approach, until the effect is unbearable and they turn away.
SeaChange has beaten a string of other companies -- including at least one Australian competitor -- to the market after securing the rights to develop technology pioneered by the Natal Sharks Board in South Africa. That technology consisted of heavy units solely designed for divers and attached to diving cages. They were used by abalone divers, the Australian military and at the Sydney Olympics protecting triathletes.
Potential applications for the new portable devices include aquaculture protection and incorporation into life jackets.
There isn't an official guarantee for the new product, but SeaChange chief executive Jerry Kleeman stands by the shields he says have been tested thousands of times in the most dangerous conditions without failing.
"The prototypes were being used by abalone divers who are considered most at risk, and calls were coming in 20 times a year from people saying 'This saved my life'," he said.