Lights on surfboards were previously seen as an invitation for sharks to attack. In fact, the exact opposite may be the case, as an Australian study now shows. The light would distort the silhouette of the sign, making the prey no longer seem worthwhile to the predatory fish.
The great white shark often attacks its prey from below and sometimes mistakes a surfer for a seal, says biologist Laura Ryan of Australia’s Macquarie University. If you place bright lights horizontally under the surfboard, such as LED lights, this distorts the silhouette of the board on the sea surface. This makes the plate less “appetizing” to sharks.
Clear and horizontal best
The experiments were conducted in Mossel Bay in South Africa. This is an area popular with great white sharks. The research team used seal-shaped dummies, fitted them with LED lights and towed them behind a boat. The goal was to find out which object attracted the most attention from the sharks.
The result: the brightest lights scare marine animals the most. Horizontally placed lamps had a better effect than vertical lamps. “The fear of great white sharks has been around for a long time. Part of that is because we don’t understand them very well,” Ryan said.
The study was published in the journal “Biology”. The biologist now wants to build prototypes that can be placed under kayaks or surfboards.
Source: Krone
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