hi Guys
just an update ive finally finished all the R&D for RPELA shark deterrent .
Im proud to release the latest independent scientific report after 6.5 years and over $600 000 ive my own money and put everything on the line to save surfers in this state and around the globe ,Ive tested RPELA with thousands of sharks in most hotspots .Thanks to all the crew on seabreeze that have supported this PROUDLY WA MADE product ,it has been the biggest challenge I have ever taken on with mountains of redtape and been finically crippling . I am hoping the WA government will add this to the Rebate for deterrents reducing it to $240.
Shark Deterrents are not for everyone but im stoked to protect my friends and family with this product .
for more info just PM me as I don't get much time to get on here ?
here is the link to the research
www.rpela.com/rpela-v2-scientific-report-1/
Cheers Dave
That would be great, hope the government lets you jump on board after all the investment of time and money huge effort mate good on ya
It's always been a winner from a usuability perspective Dave. Glad all the hard work and testing gaining you some good results.
Hey Dave great news congratulation to you and family its been a long road hope the government pull their finger out and add the Repla to the rebate list ASAP
For anyone who hasn't had the pleasure to meet Dave yet, the man is an absolute top shelf legend.
I will be very dissapointed if the labour government does not seriously consider backing the Rpela now it has been officially tested.
It appears they have plenty of money to pat themselves on the back during prime time telly to effectivly say we're backing one other product, put a chopper in the air for a leisurely cruise up the coast (would love to get in on that action), continue to throw money at greeny/ecowarrior marine biology that caused the problem in the first place and a sharkwatch websight/app that is only good for culling the numbers of surfers considering its based on tagging farkall of the sharks out there & people likely to call report every shark they see as a great white.
We need our tax money to be spent more effectively. I'm a firm believer that they (the sharks) are always out there & its the one you don't see that might get you. Most of the money they spent trying to prevent shark attack is a waste, its products like Daves that are likely to be far more effective.
Extra tracking stations announced for the SW "great....oh but wait, they only track tagged sharks right? Oh so pretty farking useless considering how many sharks have been tagged?....Yep...but some catch & release plans for the least likely period to see GW's starting sometime in Jan running until when, let me guess. About March after the Eco Bogan its their environment parade gets too much & you pack up as planned, declaring it wasn't worth it. We didn't see any sharks of concern...as planned due to the time the operation is likely to run.
Keeping the summer kooks & tourists happy...its all good...no one has been killed within our election years...yet. Otherwise don't worry. we can always try & go hard to push through on building one of those wave pools or net off a swimmers beach...yay!
Coz the ecology was so bad before we protected great white sharks...or was it? NO...but hey, here's an idea & I'm all for it. Its pretty similar to the government allowing a much greater crayfishing limit per year. Only the extra licenses are only available to the government fishing fleets. I mean to say we could have these epic new seafood franchises selling teh Guvners crayfish, Fish (sharks) & chips. I'm sure they could take over some land to sell some potatoes. How about all those farking useless shire offices all over West Oz that should have been closed down years ago with the advent of computers automating the work for them. They could grow the potatoes on them, decrease the shark population & hey maybe fish & chip prices could get back to pre Good Ship Tampa prices (IE GST).
But anyway, I digress...now that the Rpela has been offiically tested, if it is not added to the rebate scheme for West Australia it will be a travesty of justice given the money that has been thrown at far less shark mitigation measures we've spent so much money on over the years.
Mick i hereby award you the JBshack award for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence for that rant
Congrats Dave. Hope it all works out for you, we're all going to benefit from your hard work mate. C u in the lineup
Good stuff Dave.
You have certainly put in the hard yards,hopefully the government will come to the party.
I've got the old surf safe and rpela units and they definitely give me peace of mind when I'm in the water.
Good on you for responding to the earlier testing and improving it.
I'd like to see independent testing comparing it to the surf+, a repeat of Huveneers 2018 but with V2.
Thanks for all your time and effort Dave. Your product provides a safety net for us and our kids. I have many devices in my boards and have tried several other products over the years and yours are by far the best. I sent my boy over to rot to for a day trip last week. He always takes an old "6 8" over there. It has an original rpela in it from years ago. Charged it up and of he went.
Echo the comments thanking Dave for the effort etc and yeah hope it gets picked up in the subsidy scheme as at least its WA product based on an attempt to help surfers deal with the growing threat rather than the competition that has become an asx listed company set up to milk the taxpayer of all it can. Theres now no end of hair brained schemes in its pipeline with an eye to the growing taxpayers dollars on offer.
Not standing for the killing of even an odd shark or 2 is sure gonna end up being expensive for us all and quite profitable for the rent seekers
My beef is that as Mick says this will potentially end up being the only partially effective mitigation effort this govt end up taking and at around the effectiveness of a toss of a coin chance for 15 minutes thats just not gonna be enough.
Aerial surveys are 12% effective at spotting decoy sharks let alone moving real life ones.
The shiny new shark alert towers are pretty much pointless since WA only managed to tag half a dozen gws this year
They were dragged kicking and screaming to the smart drum line trial and will look for the first chance to ditch it
Whale numbers are on the rise and with them large GWS numbers per the csiro report.
Its only gonna get worse.
That said its interesting that changing the frequency and upping the voltage seems to have given a similar result to the shark shield now so maybe more research on this will get us better than 50% protection for 15 minutes one day.
But only of there is rigour applied to these studies and theres some pretty big grains of salt in this one as it was only tested on 7 actual sharks and they were all male when previous studies have shown its the large females that tend to go straight through these fields. Its hardly a definitive study.
Would love to see some research into all the anecdotal evidence that these devices actually attract sharks from further away before repelling at 1m or less. Now that they are being actively encouraged for use by the govt its a public safety issue that this be looked at scientifically but it wont as that just muddies the water. Might make an interesting law suit one day.
Jesusgus i have to laugh mate you do know the version you sent your kid off to rotto with has been shown to have no effect on GWS at all right?
Thats why theres a version 2.
JB I hope your not saying im being criminally misleading just cos i have a different opinion to you?
If so Ill take your anecdotal evidence of a couple of charges being stopped by the version 1 rpela and raise you the dozens of tuna divers in SA who are convinced the shark shield ATTRACTS sharks to them from a distance and then repels at close range for a short while.
If the divers are correct its a bit of a public safety issue unless absolutely everyone starts using electro mag defences of whichever brand dont you think? What about the guy that gets bit in the line up by a shark that was initially attracted by another surfers device???
Certainly warranted being included in a study before the subsidies started as that takes it from a personal decision to a public one which requires greater accountability.
Like ive said all along and been proven right in this years study the rpela v1 didnt have the size or strength of field to stop a great white. Even this latest study talks about an effective field of 1 meter and previous studies have shown the more effective shark shield diver version is ineffective at 2 to 3m which is where these charges are supposed to have been stopped so yeah im dubious at best....
The study showing the large females were less affected and even attracted to the fields was from around 2008 and on the shark shield diver version but dont have it to hand so going off memory. if i come across it ill post it.
The gist of it was of the 30 odd sharks in that study there was a considerable dispersion of behaviour between individuals with some repelled by the SS and others immune or even attracted to it. So 7 sharks in a study all male and none particularly large means more work should ideally be done before claims can be made with real credibility. Thats basically the conclusion in the study funnily enough.
Like i said I back daves efforts and its great that the V2 is seemingly now pretty similar to the shark shield surfboard version in effect but neither are as effective as the diver version due to size of field. its just the physics of electrode distances. I dont think the tweaks are that small either as its resulted in a doubling of the voltage although still not that huge at 1.75v. While i would have some confidence in the v2 from this study I continue to have zero in the V1 and its 0.9v.
This along with your religious zeal to not kill a single shark is where we disagree. Its not any more or less educated an opinion than yours and sure not criminal.
Personally i couldnt give a toss if a few sharks get sore mouths after being on an SDL. I dont care if a few die or alot for that matter. They arent rare anymore so why treat them any differently to any fish we catch. They arent special. I reckon a marlin is pretty sore after being tagged for example. they reckon off exmouth about 30 to 40% of sailfish tagged are eaten by sharks while recovering from the fight.
I reckon theres far far less moral justification for a fish with a sore mouth from game fishing than from one with a sore mouth from attempting to protect human lives.
At least we agree the govt response has been a shmozzle at best. At worst theres an agenda on the left that effectively puts a fishes life ahead of a humans and thats where things get pretty sinister.
We also agree that the political sensitivity on this issue has resulted in cover ups of facts like the data from NSW SDLs and the potential territoriality of some GWS. That is criminal as well as a shame. We need all the info we can get to tackle this problem not just cover ups so as to not upset a vocal minority of irrelevant greenies living in inner city suburbs that maybe dip their toes in the ocean once a year. yeah basically politics sucks on this issue.
I reckon the sharks were probably large enough
23ft boat....that's Dave on the front looking at a bigger shark on the other side!!
PerthNow running the story:
www.perthnow.com.au/news/sharks/rpela-wa-surfer-invents-new-device-that-repels-white-sharks-ng-b881057639z