As someone who is opposed to shark nets for their impact on other wildlife while offering little protection against shark attacks, I'm personally proud to hold SM8 and pleased to see interest building from governments. A highlights for me was:
Several local municipalities nationally have directly approached SMS for proposals since the successful completion of the deployment at Bondi Beach last summer/autumn, with these currently awaiting state government support to formalize the relevant funding models available.
Shark attacks have a huge psychological impact on local beach goers and potential tourists despite being so statistically unlikely, and IMO the reassurance offered to swimmers by having a highly visible Clever Buoy situated on popular beaches scanning constantly for shark-like objects should be enough to get the relevant funding approvals. From my own research it seems the only criticism reported from trials is the odd false positive in the presence of Dolphins, although again IMO this is immaterial as the software algorithms detection can be improved further while other innovations such as Westpac's Little Ripper could be used in the interim to authenticate a buoy detection and monitor the situation. Considering the approach currently in place is a static net designed to entangle sharks if they swim into it, that costs the NSW government $1.4m pa to operate for 8 months of year despite being completely useless if the shark happens to swim around it, I believe the Clever Buoy a no brainer for governments overseeing any coastal community affected by shark attacks. I'm personally a huge fan of the concept so as always DYOR, but I believe it won't be long before you see a Clever Buoy at your beach and I'm surprised to see the SM8 forum so quiet.
GLTAH
SM8 Price at posting:
17.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
