Cable current deters great whites
The world's first electronic shark deterrent cable has been activated on a popular Cape Town beach, causing excitement in South Africa.
And already, a great white shark has come within 30m of the submerged cable at Glencairn beach, then turned away.
The South African Sharks Board said the big shark was too far away to judge the early effectiveness of the electric current cable, but it hoped the four-month trial would mean the end of nets and drum lines such as those that have caused controversy in Australia, particularly in WA.
If the 100m cable is successful, Sharks Board team leader Paul von Blerk wants to bring it to Perth to restore public confidence on our beaches.
The Sharks Board also invented what is known as the shark shield, a leash with a current. It is worn by divers and surfers.
The WA Government has granted $300,000 to the Perth company now making the shark shield to find more ways to use them in the water, including being built into surfboards.
The million-dollar deterrent cable in Cape Town is the culmination of years of research by the Sharks Board, after fatal great white attacks around Cape Town eroded public confidence.
That confidence is now back on Cape Town's beaches, thanks to the city's world- leading deterrent programs.
That includes Cape Town's effective Shark Spotters program, with constant elevated, manned surveillance of nine beaches known for great white visits across 300km.
The City of Cape Town says watching a beach from a high point allows shark spotters to see great whites further out, and says our helicopter patrols don't work.
"Helicopters are just a very short snapshot of what's going on," Cape Town's shark research manager Gregg Oelofse said. "And they're massively expensive compared to what it costs us to run the Shark Spotters program."
That annual cost is $200,000 for 365 days a year, including employment for 43 people.
The WA Government spends $2.4 million a year on helicopter and beach patrol programs for 221 days of the year.
But that covers Perth and the South West and the costs in South Africa are less.
But the striking statistic is that the Shark Spotters program in Cape Town has had just one fatality in 10 years, despite sighting more than 1700 great whites.
Public confidence on Cape Town beaches has returned so much that while we were there swimmers and surfers remarkably ignored a great white sighting because they knew it was being watched by shark spotters on the hill.
Here in Australia, a recent NSW Government report said helicopter patrols had spotted only 17 per cent of decoy sharks set up for a study.
Another obvious contrast between Cape Town's public confidence and Perth's fear factor is that Cape Town has a new environmentally friendly shark net at popular Fish Hoek beach.
