Cocos Islands – Shark Deterrent Technology

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands has a small community but a large population of sharks in surrounding waters. Fish are a vital food source to the local community and integral to artisanal fishing and tourism (game fishing) in the area. The quantities of fish successfully landed, however, are being impacted due to sharks eating hooked fish, a phenomenon termed ‘depredation’. This presents a global economic issue for fisheries.

Without proper management, Cocos (Keeling) Island’s increasingly ‘sharky’ reputation may be detrimental to local tourism and the values of the newly established Indian Ocean Territories Marine Park. Understanding the drivers, severity and impacts of interactions between fishing activities and sharks, and developing mitigation measures, are considered priorities. Our client, the University of Western Australia (UWA), was awarded funding through the Indian Ocean Territories Marine Parks grant administered by Parks Australia to help identify solutions.

Our Australian Marine Science team collaborated with UWA, Cocos Marine Care, Reef Ecologic, Sea Country Solutions, and Shark Ethology Australia to test shark-deterrent technology designed by Rpelx, a company who has a track record over the past 10 years of providing shark deterrent technology for surfers. The technology creates an electromagnetic field around the fish caught as they are reeled back to the boat, deterring sharks by emitting a harmless but repulsive sensation to the sharks’ electro-receptors.

If successful, this technology can be implemented worldwide to help maintain the equilibrium between maintaining fishing resources for local communities while safeguarding the protection of shark populations and fostering co-existence.