Business & Tech

Shark Deterrent Sales Rising On Cape Cod: Report

Shark researchers say electronic deterrents could help prevent thousands of shark attacks.

Surf shop owners told the Boston Herald Cape Cod customers have shown a willingness to spend hundreds of dollars for a chance of repelling sharks.
Surf shop owners told the Boston Herald Cape Cod customers have shown a willingness to spend hundreds of dollars for a chance of repelling sharks. (Shutterstock)

HYANNIS, MA — The sales of electronic shark deterrents have risen on Cape Cod over the last few years, and Australian shark researchers say the device could prevent thousands of shark bites.

The devices use an electric field to repel sharks and can be attached to a person's ankle, surf board or scuba gear. Flinders University Professor Corey Bradshaw told the Boston Herald the electronic shark deterrents could prevent 1,063 Australians from getting bitten by a shark by 2066, which comes out to about 24 people a year.

And now, Cape Cod customers are giving the devices a try in the wake of the 2018 fatal shark attack off Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet, Cape Cod's first shark-related death since 1936.Surf shop owners told the Boston Herald customers have shown a willingness to spend hundreds of dollars for a chance of repelling sharks.

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"People want to get back in the water,"Sickday surf shop owner Olaf Valli told the Herald. "And people living on the Cape and visiting the Cape have decided that spending $500 on a system to decrease the risk of an interaction with a shark is well worth it."

For more on this story, check out the Boston Herald.

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