Unintentional catch is a big reason that more than a hundred shark species are threatened with extinction. Yet creating a small electric field around fishing hooks using cheap inputs — zinc and graphite — is enough to keep many away, a new study indicates. In coastal waters off Florida, small zinc-and-graphite blocks rigged next to fishing hooks reduced shark catch by around two-thirds, according to the study, which was published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences on Jan. 15. “This study was part of an effort to reduce the number of sharks that are caught and killed as incidental bycatch in commercial fisheries,” Stephen Kajiura, a professor of biological sciences at Florida Atlantic University and lead author of the study, told Mongabay. “We’re trying to develop a method that will be cheap and effective that the fishermen could use, that would keep the sharks off the hooks but still allow them to catch their target species.” “It’s no good if it impedes the fisherman’s ability to get what they want,” he added. “And that’s the cool thing about this type of repellent … it only repels sharks and not anything else.” A skipper pulls up longlines after catching a large number of piked dogfish (Squalus acanthias) in waters off Chatham, Massachusetts, in 2009. Unlike other shark species, piked dogfish weren’t deterred by an electric field created around fishing hooks, a new study shows. Image by AP Photo/Stephan Savoia. Sharks and related species are especially electrosensitive. Researchers have…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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