Tampa, Fla. (CBS TAMPA) – A new tech product that creates a protective electronic field underwater and on July 8, 2010 in Gansbaai, South Africa. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
will soon help ocean-goers avoid any unwanted interactions with sharks.
The Shark Shield device is worn on divers and causes sharks to feel a brief “muscular contraction” that sends them swimming away with no damage done to either the person or the shark.
An Australian-based company has created the devicethat is “comfortable and lightweight with a low drag antenna trailing behind providing complete freedom to enjoy your free-diving, spearfishing, scuba diving, surfing or kayak fishing.”
The first American store in Tampa was chosen “due to the increased popularity of ocean sports in the area,” Amanda Wilson, General Manager of Shark Shield, told the Orlando Sentinel. “We want to make the ocean a safer place for those who enjoy its wonders and help continue the conservation efforts of ocean advocates.”
The Shark Shield is worn on the ankle of divers and with an antenna with electrodes that create an electronic field that causes a shark within a little over a meter to spasm in their snout and flee the area.
“There are no known long term adverse effects to the shark,” according to the company website.
The Shark Shield products cost within a range of $599 to $699.
The company describes the Scuba7, Freedom7 and Surf7 Shark shields as products with a wide range of applicability: Can help protect fishermen and their catch from “unwanted shark attention,” is “compact and lightweight” for surfers to attach to the board itself and is designed for divers in “shallow inter-tidal zones.”
“The Shark Shield saved my life as well as everyone around me in the water,” reads one review on the company’s website.
‘Shark Shield’ Creates Electronic Field Around Divers To Repel Sharks
