This Weird Trick Might Prevent Great White Shark Attacks

For millennia – well, maybe not quite that long; but most definitely in recent decades – surfers and swimmers have been trying their damndest to figure out how to prevent shark attacks. The success thus far? Not much. There’s been whacky, snake oil attempts, like Sharkbanz, but nothing truly effective. And so, the scoreboard remains the same – sharks: ∞; surfers: 0.

But there’s a new study out of Australia that shows some promise in deterring shark attacks.

Entitled Counterillumination Reduces Bites by Great White Sharks, the study comes from Macquarie University in Sydney, and the basic premise is this: Sharks, particularly Great Whites, identify their prey by dark silhouettes, so, by using LED lights on the bottom of a surfboard, this might just prevent them from attacking unsuspecting, non-prey surfers bobbing in the lineup.

“In the open ocean, achieving camouflage is complicated by the fact that the downwelling light is generally much brighter than the upwelling light, which means that any object, even if its ventral surface is white due to countershading, will appear as a dark silhouette when viewed from below,” the study states. “Counterillumination is predicted to be particularly useful against predators that have poor visual acuity and lack color vision, like the Great White shark (Carcharodon carcharias), the species responsible for most human shark-bite fatalities globally.”

So, how’d they test their theory? The study continues:

“Here, we take inspiration from nature to show that counterillumination can prevent Great White sharks from attacking artificial seal decoys. Using seal decoys fitted with LED lights and towed behind a boat, we explored the efficiency of different light configurations on the deterrence effect, showing that visual shape and motion cues are critical for prey recognition by Great White sharks.”

And how’d it go?

“Counterillumination that is brighter than the background is most effective in deterring sharks, implying that, in this context, counterillumination works through disruptive camouflage rather than background matching. Our results reveal the importance of a dark silhouette against a lighter background in predatory behavior in Great White sharks and that altering the silhouette may form the basis of new non-invasive shark deterrent technology to protect human life.”

Currently, the team is testing a surfboard or surfboard addition with LED lights that would be applicable in putting their findings to the real test. But, of course, surfers can be quite particular what they want and don’t want on their boards. As the study’s lead author, Dr. Laura Ryan, told The Guardian:

“Surfers can be a little bit fussy with their surfboards. As a surfer, I want it to be useable.”

Amen.