Electric shark repellent?

Sharks a re pretty damn cool animals, and not just because of their "killing machine" reputation. For a long time, much of how sharks lived and operated was unknown. Now we have figured out a potential method of how to repel them. Which is good. It's just strating to get warm enough for swimming and I've been waiting to go to beach in my hunks-of-raw-meat bathing suit.

Sharks have an innate ability to detect electric fields, useful for sensing the bioelectric activity of their prey. Researchers discovered that strong electric fields could repel these predators, most likely by overwhelming their electricity sensors.

"It's a sense we don’t have," said Richard Brill, a biologist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association's Northeast Fisheries Science Center and head of the Cooperative Marine Education and Research Program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

A recent test showed that small disks of a rare metal alloy called palladium neodymium interact with the salt in seawater to produce electric fields strong enough to ward off sharks.

"We were just slack-jawed when we saw how well it worked," Brill told LiveScience. "I was stunned, I thought this was the stupidest idea I'd ever heard. I saw the evidence and thought, 'This can't be right.'"

To test the idea, the scientists placed the small metal disks in a tank with captive juvenile sandbar sharks. They were surprised to find that the metal had such a strong effect: The sharks generally wouldn't swim within 24 inches (61 centimeters) of the disks, or bite at bait hung within 12 inches of the disks.

Most fish cannot detect electric fields, so the metal disks could be perfect for deterring sharks without affecting the animals fishers hope to catch.

"That's the beauty of this method — it's sort of a secure communications channel," Brill said.
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