By LEUT Aaron Matzkows

ABCD Bunter wears the Shark Shield with the pack on his shoulder.

Able Seaman Luke Bunter knows what it’s like to be shark bait.

ABCD Bunter, a member of Clearance Diving Team Four based at HMAS Stirling, is one of a number of CDT members testing a revolutionary device designed to repel sharks.

But the members of the team have to wait until weather conditions are right to attract sharks so they can test the equipment in the wild.

A special military version of the Shark Shield has received approval for use by the US Pacific Fleet, following a visit to its manufacturers, SeaChange in Adelaide, two months ago by a US Under Secretary of Defense, Suzanne D.Patrick.

Australian Army special forces also have placed an order for the machine.

“To have this level of interest from the Australian and US military, including
having someone at the very top of the US Defense establishment choose to meet with us, is a major endorsement of our technology,” SeaChange chairman Mr Rod Hartley said.

“It would all mark a tremendous breakthrough for any company, but it’s very exciting for a small, emerging company like SeaChange, considering our first commercial device only came onto the market 18 months ago.

“The Shark Shield technology is obviously very suitable for military use, so we’re already planning for a wide range of other military applications including protection for downed air crew, life jackets, life rafts and life buoys for crew overboard.”

Its adoption by the US Navy also would open the way to NATO sales, he said.

The Shark Shield is a small portable battery-powered generator that emits an elliptical electrical field around its wearer.

When a shark approaches, the field is detected in sensitive receptors known as the Ampullae of Lorenzini in its snout causing muscular spasms and temporary discomfort. Users say sharks turn away abruptly “as if they had been punched”.

The Ampullae of Lorenzini are found in all predator sharks. The mild electrical impulses harm neither sharks nor bony fish, but the spasms in their noses become intolerable forcing sharks away from the area.

The Shark Shield is claimed to be effective at a range of up to 15 metres and batteries last up to four hours. Its dry weight is slightly over one kilogram.

CDTFOUR Executive Officer LEUT Russell Cronin said his team was quietly confident it would be an effective tool.

They were keen to give it a serious “road test”, he said.

The device was developed from a much larger shark deterrent called the Shark POD (Protective Oceanic Device), invented by the Natal Sharks Board in South Africa.

The South African government-funded organisation had used fences, nets and even explosives to protect bathers from shark attack.

The SeaChange company was formed two years ago specifically to advance and commercialise the technology developed by the Natal Sharks Board.

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