ExtraTorrent | Twitter Used to Track Sharks in Australia

[Atreides]

The Department of Fisheries in Western Australia has introduced a new system, in which the sharks will be able to announce their own presence through Twitter. It must be mentioned that more shark attacks occur in Western Australia than almost anywhere else in the world and the country’s government had to spend a fortune on helicopter-based spotters and co-ordinating members of the public to report their own sightings.

Now the high technologies come out of the shadows. The researchers have developed the Shark Monitoring Network: this system will use acoustic tags attached to the fins of individual sharks, along with buoyed monitoring devices that pick up the signals transmitted by those tags. The scheme is easy: when a tagged shark would swim within range of one of the monitors, its species, size and location will be recorded and transmitted via satellite to a PC. Now Twitter’s part comes: the computer will immediately post the information on Twitter, making the shark's location instantly known.

The innovative system uses 19 satellite-linked monitors to keep track of 338 tagged sharks - all kinds of species, including great whites, tigers and bulls. The people’s safety will depend on the sharks being tagged and swimmers checking Twitter before diving, but it is a start. However, this system can’t guarantee to stop a determined shark from eating someone it doesn’t like either.