And if the salvation of surf à the meeting came fromAustralia ? The island continent has also seen a series of shark attacks in recent times. On the beaches of the province of Western Australia, five surfers have died in the past year from injuries inflicted by sharks. In reaction to these accidents, a team of researchers and the company Shark Attack Mitigation Systems (SAMS) have found a solution to deceive selachimorphs: a camouflage combination imitating poisonous fish.

“A number of animals are repelled by poisonous animals who have developed a visual code signaling their potential predators not to. eat. And this signal is often a striped pattern“, Summarizes the professor Shaun Collin of the Oceanic Institute of the University of Western Autralia, who worked on the project for the company SAMS. Indeed, several poisonous fish exhibit these characteristics, the best known being the scorpion fish or the “striped knit” sea snake.

This invention follows a recent discovery by scientists about the ability of sharks to to distinguish the patterns but not the colors. “We know that large predators can see. We just converted science into marketable technology, explains Hamish Jolly of SAMS. These combinations simply want say sharks that their porters are not at eat. " So far, these combinations have only been tested on tiger sharks.

SAMS is not the first company to propose an anti-shark solution. The latest invention to protect against attacks is the Shark Shocker. This neoprene bracelet produces an electro-magnetic field disturbing the ampoules of Lorenzini, the sensory receptors of sharks. He can porter wrist or ankle and is less bulky than the Shark Shield, which is also designed on the same principle but is placed on the surfboard.

In a less ecological version, the Shark Repellent is a repellent containing a chemical substance and thick black color, designed to disorient and repel sharks in the event of proximity deemed worrying. This product was tested by the US Navy in real conditions and obtained the highest success rate on a comparison of twenty-four repellents. The iron mesh suit remains the most effective weapon to avoid any bite. It is much less for doing surf.