Light, noise and bubble curtains to deter sharks

Strobe lights and a bubble machine, it sounds like the recipe for a bad 90's disco but it could be the key to helping to protect beachgoers from shark attacks. 

The State Government has awarded $900,000 worth of research grants as part of its shark mitigation strategy. 

It follows an unprecedented number of attacks off the WA coast over the past few years. 

One of the successful applicants is Associate Professor Nathan Hart from the University of Western Australia's Ocean Institute, who is looking at lights, sound waves and so-called 'bubble curtains' as a way of deterring the animals from popular beaches. 

"Just like us, we're afraid of certain things which are unpleasant to our senses, so if you think of a bright strobe light going off unexpectedly, you'll often recoil from that," he says. 

"The bubble curtain is a similar sort of process, a lot of animals are very wary of going somewhere they can't see or sense.

"So imagine a long pipe running along the bottom of the ocean putting out a field of bubbles... The idea is to develop something robust that could be turned on and off to protect a defined area."

Another team of researchers is taking a slightly more technical approach - developing computer algorithms to try to improve shark detection. 

"It's quite similar to face recognition technology," says Dr Ferdous Sohel from UWA. 

"First of all we'll capture images and then we'll filter them to find out if there are any mammals or any big objects.

"We'll have our shark models built in so if we get a match we'll be able to alert patrols." 

Funding has also been granted to test and improve shark shield technology and develop sonar imaging systems. 

WA's Chief Scientist Lyn Beazley is the chair of the Shark Hazard Advisory Research Committee and helped to assess the applications. 

Professor Beazley says the research will strengthen WA's position as a leading centre on shark research.
"I think this will make a material difference and allow science to play a real part in making our beaches safer," she says. 

"We have attracted the best teams in the world here. The world is now looking to us for the very best answers and I think we will provide them."

The Science and Innovation Minister John Day agrees WA is attracting world class research.

"Unless we try these things we will never know but we are certainly using the expertise of excellent scientists here in Western Australia," he says.

"The research will take either two or three years, these sort of things do need to be done thoroughly and carefully."

Mr Day says the government would share any intellectual property with the other partners. 

"Given there is tax payer funding being invested in this, the state would have some continuing interest but it's a partnership with the universities and also with industry," he said. 

Another $1 million worth of grants will be made available mid next year. 

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