On the beach in California launched a system of protection against sharks: how it works

After two weeks ago on a Californian beach a shark mutilated teen, the city of Newport Beach has launched a system whose goal is to protect vacationers from marine predators. The project had been developed for a long time, but an attack on a child prompted the creators of the system and state authorities to take active action.

Фото: Depositphotos

Visitors to the local beach in the Californian city of Newport Beach are unlikely to pay attention to this seemingly unremarkable buoy. But in vain: after all, there is a device installed on it, the purpose of which is to protect vacationers from sharks, he says Voice of America.

"We can't see what's underwater, so this device will help us monitor what's going on below the surface," says Craig Anderson.

Anderson is the founder of the Australian company Smart Marine Systems. Their latest development is called Smart Buoy, a multi-beam sonar that creates a 3D image of the water column.

Photo: YouTube / Smart Marine Systems

Photo: still from Voice of America video

“With this technology, we will be able to find out which animal is nearby, determine its size, location and direction of movement,” explains the expert.

When a predator is detected, the system sends a warning signal to coastal rescuers, who, if confirmed, will be able to notify travelers or even close the beach.

“The ability to warn vacationers before a shark gets dangerously close to them will allow us to take the necessary measures much faster,” says Brent Jacobsen, chief of the coastal rescue service.

Read more: how it works and how reliable the system is.

Clever Buoy, a smart buoy from Smart Marine Systems, relies on underwater sonar arrays, says Habr. An active sonar can track any sufficiently large sea animal at a certain distance, unlike passive devices that many scientists use to detect specific individuals marked with transmitters.

Photo: YouTube / Smart Marine Systems

“What we're doing now is solving the problem of recognizing characteristic patterns,” explains Craig Anderson. “Each creature in the ocean swims in a special way, which gives us a unique “portrait” on sonar, from which in the future we can even determine the subspecies.”

Of course, any method has its drawbacks. Clever Buoy can not yet accurately determine the type of shark - which is an important factor in assessing likely harm.

“At the next stage, we will definitely learn to identify a specific species,” Anderson promises. “There is no need to close the beach and kick vacationers out of the water just because a marten shark decided to pay a friendly visit there.”

Photo: YouTube / Smart Marine Systems

There remains a lot of incomprehensible both in the behavior and fluctuations of the shark population, so that you can answer the question of why the total number of incidents has been growing slowly in recent years. For example, there is no strong evidence that the recovery of shark species protected by law increases the risk to humans. On the contrary, experts say that an increase in the number of bathers and surfers has a much greater effect on statistics.

“For example, in California, statistics have been collected over the past 20-25 years showing a natural increase in the number of bites per person as the number of people getting into the water increases,” says Christopher Lowe, a marine biologist and director of the Shark Laboratory at California State University. , Long Beach. “But per capita numbers are declining, even taking into account the increase in the number of predators.”

But the influence of sharks is not limited to the fact that someone dies or loses a limb, severe cases are in fact very rare. Nevertheless, even a lone shark can scare away a whole beach and thus harm a business tied to local visitors and tourists. The chain of visits can cause everyone to feel that the sea is just teeming with sharks.

“If you talk to someone at risk after one or two tragic incidents, you'll probably hear about what an incredible nightmare and tragedy it is,” says Sarah Waris, project manager for the Shark Alert Program in Cape Town. , South Africa - But it doesn't compare to the instinctive, animal horror that comes out after a series of attacks, when a sudden surge of such events seems to tell people - you can feel safer anymore.

Photo: still from Voice of America video

Cape Town knows what they are talking about - in 2004, the panic caused by the massive influx of sharks has already been experienced here in XNUMX. After that, local businessmen and surfers created a voluntary organization that brought together rescuers and security guards of parking lots near the beaches, who were instructed to use the binoculars to observe the sea from high hills. If an observer on the hill found the trail of a shark, he radioed the rescuer on the beach to activate the warning system in the form of signal flags and a siren calling people to go ashore.

Researchers in America are also eyeing the most advanced observation technologies, but with caution, mainly because of the inability of technology to distinguish between sharks of different species.

“The great white is completely different from the blacktip found in Volusia County,” said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History's shark research program. “They are as different as a person is different from a dog.”

Photo: still from Voice of America video

“Also, the machine's performance is very much influenced by the environment,” echoed Gregory Skomal, a marine biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries, before blaming the high cost of solutions and the lack of funds to pre-test devices in the local environment.

“All of these things are very dependent on the area in which you are going to use them,” Skomal explains. “What is designed for the clear Australian seas is not suitable for the murky waters off Cape Cod.”

No matter what the circumstances, so far Australian startups have not lost their enthusiasm and are eager to expand the market, despite the high development costs. Craig Anderson and Smart Marine System launched a $ 25 000 crowdfunding company this summer to install Clever Buoy on Corona Del Mar Beach in New Beach, California, near which a shark attacked a triathlete in 2016. And so, the launch took place.

“I think Florida and Massachusetts will soon follow our example,” Anderson said. “But this is just the beginning, and there is a lot of work ahead of us.”

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