Magnets Repel Sharks
Since 2001, SharkDefense has been working on a chemical shark repellent to prevent a shark from dying on commerical fishing lines meant to catch other fish such as swordfish.
In 2005, the researchers were playing with powerful rare-earth magnets when one was accidentally dropped next to their shark research tank in Oak Ridge, New Jersey. The lemon and nurse sharks inside instantly swam to the opposite direction.
Further investigation led them to believe that the magnets overload a shark’s ampullae of Lorenzini, which are small vesicles and pores around the shark’s head that form part of a subcutaneous sensory network.
In their testing at the Bimini Biological Research Station shark lab in the Bahamas, it was found that the sharks dramatically avoided magnets made from neodymium, iron and boron. The magnets even roused a shark from tonic immobility, a coma-like state induced by turning it upside down.
Source: “Geeky Rare-Earth Magnets Repel Sharks” Wired May 15, 2007
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