'Invisibility cloak' could save surfers from shark attacks

Scientists have discovered that equipping surfboards with bright LED lights could prevent great white shark attacks on surfers and swimmers. A recent study published in the journal Current Biology found that lighting up the underside of surfboards disrupts the silhouette perceived by sharks - so they are less likely to mistake humans for their usual prey.

Researchers have previously discovered that great whites rely on their eyes to locate prey near the surface - typically a seal - and lunge upwards to take it in their jaws.

In related studies, the researchers have also found that, like most sharks, great whites are probably completely colour-blind and have poor vision. However, the great white shark is really good at detecting a silhouette, and surfers and swimmers may have a similar profile to prey.

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This reliance on seeing the silhouette of their prey also opens up an opportunity. What if a silhouette on the surface of the water was disguised using lights so that the shark - blind to colour and unable to detect detail - would not see it as food?

Dr Laura Ryan, a biologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, said: "There was a big spate of shark bites and as a really keen surfer I was spending a lot of time thinking about sharks' eyesight.

She began pondering how her research on shark vision could be used to protect people from shark attacks. "I started to think what if what I was learning could potentially protect surfers?" she added.

To test out this counterillumination strategy Dr Ryan spent months, in multiple trips over six years, in one of the world’s notorious hot spots for great white sharks - Mossel Bay in