CIÊNCIA
Como as luzes nas pranchas de surf cinfundem os tubarões
November 13, 2024 -
Cientistas australianos pensam ter encontrado uma forma de impedir
que os grandes tubarões brancos ataquem os surfistas e outras pessoas que se recreiam na superfície do mar recorrendo a luzes.
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Researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, think they have devised a way to help surfers avoid attacks from great white sharks.
According to studies, like most sharks, great whites are probably completely colour blind and have poor visual acuity.
Unfortunately, this means that the silhouette of a surfboard or a human in the water looks similar to that of a seal – making the great white responsible for most human shark-bite fatalities.
However, experiments conducted in Mossel Bay, South Africa, show that placing strips of LED lights perpendicular to the direction of travel of seal-shaped foam decoys confused the sharks by breaking the silhouette into unrecognisable abstract shapes – stopping them from attacking.
The “counterillumination” strategy is inspired by nature whereby the juvenile plainfin midshipman fish which has photospores on its underside that produce light and disrupt the shape of its silhouette.
Researchers are now building prototype surfboards and kayaks with lighting strips embedded into their underside ahead of new tests.