The beach protection nets used now are designed to kill sharks. They are effective and also kill many dolphins, rays, turtles, and whales. A new type of net will be developed to eliminate these losses
There is no need to kill thousands of creatures to protect beaches. Both the beaches and the creatures can be protected.
We propose to make an alternative shark net, with webbing that conducts electricity. Sharks and rays detect even very low levels of electromagnetic field and will avoid the net. The net would be powered by solar collectors.
The nets should also be highly detectable to cetaceans because the conductive material will also reflect echolocation signals. Because sharks will detect and avoid the nets, the mesh size can be increased to reduce turtle mortality.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
