Developers based in Huntington Station, NY., have developed SharkStopper, a device that is worn on the ankle, to repel sharks by emitting sounds that mimics the predatory fish's natural predator.

In the past, many sea-farers that fear the great beasts have turned to methods such as using magnetic, electropositive and electrical shark repellents, which disrupt the shark's electroreceptors on the tip of its snout, and semiochemicals, which are chemicals that carries a message for communication.

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While most of the shark repellents use methods in which sharks' senses are disrupted, the SharkStopper uses a different method altogether. The device keeps sharks at bay by emitting sound waves that the sharks presumably don't like. The SharkStopper is worn around the user's ankle and automatically sounds off when in contact with water, which the inventors said would help individuals in shallow water since "sharks can appear in less than 2 feet of water!"

A campaign was recently launched by SharkStopper on Kickstarter, a global crowd-funding platform, to raise money for its production. With a pricetag of $275, any interested beachgoer could receive a unit, but people at CNET recommend that if an individual purchases the gadget, the owner should spend a lot of time in the ocean to get the most bang for the buck.

"The sounds emitted by SharkStopper emulate the sounds of killer whales in conjunction with our patented frequency overlay," the makers say on their Kickstarter page.

Because the sharks are one of the prey animals of the killer whale, the audio is supposed to keep the predatory fish away. The developers of the device say the gadget has been tested with the aid of numerous experts on sharks in the waters off the coast of Hawaii and Mexico and in the Seattle Aquarium and discovered it was successful against a numerous species of sharks

The SharkStopper, which charges with a USB cable, weighs about the same as a cell phone.

Tagssharks, shark, Repellent, marine life, Marine, Tech, technology, Kickstarter