Julien will remember all his life that day when he thought he had taken all the precautions before surfing, but it wasn’t enough. Victim of a shark attack on a shore of Reunion Island, he escaped by a miracle: the bulldog shark chewed his board, leaving a monstrous jaw imprint. The surfer returns today to the water with a board equipped with an electric device against sharks: “This system is made for surfboards. There isn’t one for bodysuits, but we managed to install one on a bodyboard, which is a first”he explains to the magazine “1:15 p.m. on Sunday” (replay).
“The principle is very simple: a battery at the front with an On/Off system, an antenna under the board with two electrodes which emit an electric field of about one meter around me, specifies who is in charge of the tests on the bodyboards. A stimulus is produced in the water. Sharks are very sensitive to electrical emissions through their receptors in their snout. They flee when they feel this electric field. And I can’t go in the water without a system that works under my board.” This equipment will be mandatory for surfing, especially on the west coast of Reunion, subject to deadly attacks.
“Effectiveness is rated at 70%”
The tester then goes to the Shark Safety Center (CSR) in Saint-Leu, a seaside resort and surf spot in this department and French overseas region, to give his first impressions after the tests. There are two different technologies. One works perfectly, but not the other: “There are a lot of constraints due to electricity. As soon as you pass a wave, you take a jolt, and it’s downright letting go of the board”, reports Julien. Not a terrible question of comfort, but it still repels sharks, as tests carried out in New Caledonia have shown.
“A group of scientists from the center moved there to do a battery of tests on the bull shark in very turbid water and with bait under the board, explains Christophe Mulquin, project manager at the CSR. We see in these images the beast, which is about three meters tall, with its jaws wide open. He leaves immediately, turning around. Another goes towards the board with the two electrodes approaching the bait. And he suddenly changes course. Efficiency is rated at 70%. The protocol for this test: a tank with forty bull sharks, in very turbid water and with bait between their legs. In Reunion, we do not go out in these conditions! If a bulldog approaches in predation mode, it is estimated that when it takes the maximum discharge of the equipment at sixty centimeters, it will turn back.”
> Replays of France Télévisions news magazines are available on the Franceinfo website and its mobile application (iOS & Android), “Magazines” section.