Unfortunately not all sharks have people teeth, which is why scientists in Western Australia have tagged over 70 great white sharks with satellite-tracking darts designed to send out a text message when one of the predators swims within 500 meters of metropolitan beaches.
Researchers have set up a total of 18 acoustic seabed receivers that are designed to send out a text message within two minutes of one of the sharks passing by.
The purpose of shark texting is twofold: In addition to alerting lifeguards to the presence of potentially dangerous white sharks in the water, researchers hope to discover more about shark migration patterns and how they relate to attacks on humans.
Australian Department of Fisheries’ senior research scientist Dr Rory McAuley told PerthNow:
“The information we are hoping to collect will hopefully provide us some answers to the questions we are always asking about how long white sharks spend off our beaches, whether they come back, is there a season, do they come back one year after the other.”
Only four sharks have triggered text messages since the animals were tagged in May. Reports did not say if the messages included emoticons.
[Via: Telegraph]
Follow me on Twitter: @Kyle_Cassidy
