Western Australia are implementing a new SMS alert system for their lifesavers which would let them know by text message when a tagged shark comes within 500 m of a populated beach. 70 have been tagged so far, and they hope to get another 100 in the next two years. Although the tagging and tracking of these sharks is great for researchers hoping to monitor wildlife behaviour, this is a helpful side-effect for swimmers who don’t want to, you know, get chewed up. Alerting lifeguards is a great step, but I wonder if it’s possible to blast out text messages to anyone using cell towers close to a shark approach.
[via The Telegraph]
P.S.: If you don’t get the pic, read up.