{"id":17246,"date":"2015-09-14T18:48:40","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T01:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/scientists-have-developed-a-shark-repelling-device-for-your-surfboard"},"modified":"2017-04-25T00:20:27","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T07:20:27","slug":"scientists-have-developed-a-shark-repelling-device-for-your-surfboard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/scientists-have-developed-a-shark-repelling-device-for-your-surfboard","title":{"rendered":"Scientists have developed a shark-repelling device for your surfboard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"display:none;\" src=\"\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZlI-e2NA1Ic?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Researchers have developed an electronic device that you can attach to your surfboard or wear while swimming to help deter sharks. The aim is to harmlessly mess with the animals\u2019 electroreceptive system, and studies so far have shown that they can prevent more than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2015\/jun\/18\/electronic-shark-deterrent-surfers-divers-prevents-90-of-encounters\">90 percent of shark encounters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Before you all rush off to buy one, let\u2019s get one thing straight: shark attacks are incredibly rare, with on average <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flmnh.ufl.edu\/fish\/sharks\/statistics\/statsw.htm\">just 75 being reported<\/a> worldwide every year. That means you have on average a roughly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flmnh.ufl.edu\/fish\/Sharks\/Statistics\/beachattacks.htm\">one in 11.5 million chance<\/a> of being attacked by a shark (and if you rarely swim more than 25 metres out from the beach, <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/whats-the-real-risk-of-being-bitten-by-a-shark-in-western-australia-23132\">it\u2019s even lower than that<\/a>) \u2014 which is far less than your risk of dying from home repairs or, say, a bicycle-related injury.<\/p>\n<p>But despite all of us very sensible people knowing that we\u2019re probably not going to be attacked by a shark in our lifetimes, we can\u2019t help but be terrified by the idea of it. Which is why scientists have been working for decades on humane ways to repel the animals.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/scientists-have-developed-a-shark-repelling-device-for-your-surfboard\" target=\"_blank\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers have developed an electronic device that you can attach to your surfboard or wear while swimming to help deter sharks. The aim is to harmlessly mess with the animals\u2019 electroreceptive system, and studies so far have shown that they can prevent more than 90 percent of shark encounters. Before you all rush off to [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-futurism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45912,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17246\/revisions\/45912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}