History
During November 2004, Sharkdefense researcher Eric Stroud accidentally dropped a magnet onto a rubber mat near a captive tank at the Oak Ridge Shark Laboratory. He noticed that juvenile nurse sharks (G. cirratum) near the tank wall swam away. While the initial event may have been due to vibrations, it led him to test the effects of the magnet on the captive sharks. Placing the magnet within the tank, Eric observed that nurse sharks avoided the region around the magnet. Follow-on tests in 2005 with Michael Herrmann at the laboratory used an acrylic Y-Maze and showed preference towards non-magnetic exits and strong conditioning. During February 2005, Patrick Rice and Eric Stroud conducted tonic immobility trials at the Bimini Biological Field Station, Bahamas, which confirmed that juvenile lemon sharks (N. brevirostris) and juvenile nurse sharks (G. cirratum) roused when permanent magnets were presented within 50 cm of the sharks nares. Interestingly, mobility was not terminated when strong electromagnets were placed near the sharks.
In May 2006, SharkDefense won the WWF SmartGear award for its proposal to selectively reduce sharks bycatch in commercial fisheries using permanent magnets. Michael Herrmann accepted the award in Brussels on behalf of SharkDefense. SharkDefense is the inventor and is currently the patent application holder for this technology and actively collaborates with other researchers to investigate species-specific effects and gear design.
On January 1, 2009, a peer-reviewed publication described experiments in Australia showing the efficacy of using magnets to deter sharks.
On January 12, 2010, Craig O'Connell from SharkDefense also published a peer-reviewed paper on the efficacy of magnetic shark repellents.
Read more about this topic: Magnetic Shark Repellent
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