Despite what you may have heard, the fact remains: sharks live in the ocean. Being that surfing, too, happens in the ocean surfers and sharks often cross paths.
Whether real or imagined, the feeling is shark attacks globally are on the rise. That may be due, in part, to an increasing number of surfers, or increasing shark populations due to regulations designed to protect them. Whatever the case, surfers are some of the loudest in the room on both sides of a debate to protect beachgoers from sharks, and to refrain from drastic measures like culls and the like.
Surfers are also at the forefront of developing deterrent devices – from surf waxes to wristbands and leashes, there are an innumerable amount of products on the market. Some of which lack any true scientific testing to prove their effectiveness.
Ocean Guardian, makers of Shark Shield technology, which Tom Carroll endorses, contends that its deterrent is the only proven technology out there. They announced as much in a recent press release, the writer of which has a pretty liberal definition of “proven” and “breaking news.”
First off, their product (called FREEDOM+ Surf, powered by Shark Shield) isn’t exactly new. The release simply points to continued research into the technology that supports Ocean Guardian’s claim that their device is head and shoulders above the rest.
“New research undertaken in Australia in late 2017 and early 2018 (led by highly regarded Associate Professor Charlie Huveneers of Flinders University) was commissioned by the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries and resulted in Ocean Guardian’s shark deterrent for surfers being proven as the only device to significantly reduce risk,” explains the release. “Reduce risk” in other words means that in an “enticed baited scenario” the FREEDOM+ Surf system worked 60% of the time. “In the test environment, you’re effectively surfing on top of a dead whale,” said Ocean Guardian CEO Lindsay Lyon.
In sharky waters, most surfers want to be certain a technology will keep them safe. Ocean Guardian’s press release concedes that reducing the risk by 100% is simply not feasible. Even seat belts only reduce the risk of fatality and serious injury in a car wreck by 50%.
Another concern of shark researcher Dr. Chris Lowe who runs California State University, Long Beach’s Shark Lab is that shark deterrents might make beachgoers and surfers in particular more apt to paddle out in sharky waters. “My concern is that people will think they’re invincible, and will actually engage in behavior that’s more risky than what they normally might do,” he told us back in 2016.
What’s perhaps most alarming about recent research cited by Ocean Guardian is that other shark deterrent technologies reduced risk by virtually nil. “The other deterrents tested included Rpela, SharkBanz bracelet, SharkBanz surf leash, and Chillax Wax which had limited to no effects on deterring white sharks.”
At $500, the FREEDOM+ Surf system isn’t cheap. But for potential buyers in Western Australia, a $200 shark deterrent government rebate makes the pill a little easier to swallow. And (hopefully) will make you and your surfboard a little harder to chew up and spit out.
