A shark-deterrent wetsuit (and it's not what you think) | Hamish Jolly

405,649 views ・ 2014-04-23

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:13
Scientific breakthrough,
0
13202
1509
00:14
the kind that can potentially save lives,
1
14711
2613
00:17
can sometimes be lying right out in the open
2
17324
2064
00:19
for us to discover,
3
19388
1562
00:20
in the evolved, accumulated body
4
20950
2206
00:23
of human anecdote, for example,
5
23156
2592
00:25
or in the time-tested adaptations
6
25748
2026
00:27
that we observe in the natural world around us.
7
27774
3462
00:31
Science starts with observation,
8
31236
2620
00:33
but the trick is to identify the patterns and signatures
9
33856
3396
00:37
that we might otherwise dismiss
10
37252
1945
00:39
as myth or coincidence,
11
39197
1867
00:41
isolate them, and test them with scientific rigor.
12
41064
3853
00:44
And when we do, the results will often surprise.
13
44917
4058
00:48
Western Australia has had a particular problem
14
48975
1880
00:50
with shark attacks over the last three years,
15
50855
3215
00:54
unfortunately and tragically culminating
16
54070
2181
00:56
in five fatal shark attacks in a 10-month period
17
56251
3080
00:59
during that time.
18
59331
1760
01:01
But Western Australia is not alone in this.
19
61091
2129
01:03
The incident of shark engagements on humans
20
63220
2905
01:06
is escalating worldwide.
21
66125
2344
01:08
And so it's not surprising, perhaps,
22
68469
1744
01:10
that in July of this year,
23
70213
1643
01:11
Shark Attack Mitigation Systems in collaboration
24
71856
2479
01:14
with the University of Western Australia Oceans Institute
25
74335
3064
01:17
made an announcement which captured the attention
26
77399
2774
01:20
of the worldwide media and of ocean users
27
80173
2236
01:22
worldwide,
28
82409
1791
01:24
and that was around the development of technology
29
84200
1731
01:25
to mitigate or reduce the risk of shark attack
30
85931
2641
01:28
based on the science of what sharks can see.
31
88572
3148
01:31
And I have for you today
32
91720
1589
01:33
the story of that journey,
33
93309
1867
01:35
but also the notion that science can be
34
95176
2340
01:37
as powerful as a translator
35
97516
2465
01:39
as it can be for invention.
36
99981
3359
01:43
When we began this process,
37
103340
1706
01:45
we were looking, it was about three years ago,
38
105046
3182
01:48
and we'd just had the first two fatal shark attacks
39
108228
3422
01:51
in Western Australia,
40
111650
1771
01:53
and by chance, in a previous role,
41
113421
2207
01:55
I happened to be having dinner with Harry Butler.
42
115628
2923
01:58
Now Harry Butler, who most Australians would know is a famous naturalist,
43
118551
3707
02:02
had spent a lot of time in the marine environment.
44
122258
2335
02:04
Harry Butler is a precursor, if you like,
45
124593
2106
02:06
to the late Steve Irwin.
46
126699
1911
02:08
When I asked him about
47
128610
1311
02:09
what the solution to the problem might be,
48
129921
3298
02:13
the answer was quite surprising.
49
133219
1512
02:14
He said, "Take a black wetsuit,
50
134731
1875
02:16
band it in yellow stripes like a bumblebee,
51
136606
2765
02:19
and you'll be mimicking the warning systems
52
139371
2288
02:21
of most marine species."
53
141659
2309
02:23
I didn't think about that much at the time,
54
143968
1898
02:25
and it wasn't until the next three fatal shark attacks happened,
55
145866
3590
02:29
and it caused me to think,
56
149456
1434
02:30
maybe there's some merit to this idea.
57
150890
2131
02:33
And I turned to the web
58
153021
1465
02:34
to see if there might be some clues.
59
154486
2255
02:36
And it turns out the web is awash
60
156741
2277
02:39
with this sort of evidence that supports
61
159018
2396
02:41
this sort of thinking.
62
161414
1562
02:42
So biologically, there are plenty of species
63
162976
1984
02:44
that display banding or patterns, warning patterns,
64
164960
2596
02:47
to either be cryptical in the water
65
167556
1702
02:49
or warn against being attacked,
66
169258
2584
02:51
not the least of which is the pilot fish
67
171842
2113
02:53
which spends a big slab of its life
68
173955
2156
02:56
around the business end of a shark.
69
176111
2279
02:58
On the human side, Walter Starck, an oceanographer,
70
178390
3091
03:01
has been painting his wetsuit since the 1970s,
71
181481
2862
03:04
and anthropologically,
72
184343
1622
03:05
Pacific island tribes painted themselves in bands
73
185965
3630
03:09
in a sea snake ceremony
74
189595
1781
03:11
to ward off the shark god.
75
191376
2594
03:13
So what's going on here?
76
193970
1442
03:15
Is this an idea lying wide out in the open
77
195412
2878
03:18
for us to consider and define?
78
198290
3131
03:21
We know that sharks use a range of sensors
79
201421
4369
03:25
when they engage, particularly for attack,
80
205790
3372
03:29
but the sight sensor is the one that they use
81
209162
1960
03:31
to identify the target, and particularly
82
211122
1564
03:32
in the last number of meters before the attack.
83
212686
3734
03:36
It makes sense to pay attention to the biological anecdote
84
216420
2958
03:39
because that's time-tested evolution
85
219378
1852
03:41
over many millennia.
86
221230
2473
03:43
But isn't human anecdote also an evolution of sorts,
87
223703
3477
03:47
the idea that there's a kernel of truth
88
227180
1731
03:48
thought to be important,
89
228911
1592
03:50
passed down from generation to generation,
90
230503
3285
03:53
so that it actually ends up shaping human behavior?
91
233788
3315
03:57
I wanted to test this idea.
92
237103
1660
03:58
I wanted to put some science
93
238763
1218
03:59
to this anecdotal evidence,
94
239981
2336
04:02
because if science could support this concept,
95
242317
1956
04:04
then we might have at least part of the solution
96
244273
2095
04:06
to shark attack right under our very nose.
97
246368
3058
04:09
To do that, I needed some experts
98
249426
1795
04:11
in shark vision and shark neurology,
99
251221
1853
04:13
and a worldwide search, again,
100
253074
1809
04:14
led to the University of W.A.
101
254883
1439
04:16
on the doorstep here, with the Oceans Institute.
102
256322
2403
04:18
And professor Nathan Hart and his team
103
258725
2597
04:21
had just written a paper which tells us,
104
261322
2660
04:23
confirms that predatory sharks see
105
263982
2352
04:26
in black and white, or grayscale.
106
266334
2863
04:29
So I called up Nathan,
107
269197
1803
04:31
a little bit sheepishly, actually, about this idea
108
271000
1866
04:32
that maybe we could use these patterns and shapes
109
272866
1881
04:34
to produce a wetsuit to try and mitigate the risk of shark attack,
110
274747
3506
04:38
and fortunately, he thought that was a good idea.
111
278253
2172
04:40
So what ensued is a collaborative bit of research
112
280425
2462
04:42
supported by the West Australian State Government.
113
282887
2624
04:45
And we did three key things.
114
285511
2559
04:48
The first is that we mapped the characteristics,
115
288070
2720
04:50
the physical characteristics of the eyes
116
290790
2020
04:52
of the three main predatory sharks,
117
292810
1938
04:54
so the great white, tiger and bull shark.
118
294748
3718
04:58
We did that genetically
119
298466
1554
05:00
and we did that anatomically.
120
300020
2900
05:02
The next thing we did was to understand,
121
302920
1842
05:04
using complex computer modeling,
122
304762
1435
05:06
what that eye can see
123
306197
2054
05:08
at different depths, distances,
124
308251
1769
05:10
light conditions, and water clarity in the ocean.
125
310020
4241
05:14
And from there, we were able to pinpoint
126
314261
1190
05:15
two key characteristics:
127
315451
1800
05:17
what patterns and shapes would present the wearer
128
317251
3033
05:20
as hidden or hard to make out in the water, cryptic,
129
320284
3232
05:23
and what patterns and shapes might provide
130
323516
1496
05:25
the greatest contrast but provide the greatest
131
325012
2921
05:27
breakup of profile
132
327933
1457
05:29
so that that person wasn't confused for shark prey
133
329390
3644
05:33
or shark food.
134
333034
2353
05:35
The next thing we needed to do was to convert this
135
335387
2192
05:37
into wetsuits that people might actually wear,
136
337579
2749
05:40
and to that end, I invited Ray Smith,
137
340328
2622
05:42
a surfer, industrial designer, wetsuit designer,
138
342950
3230
05:46
and in fact the guy that designed the original Quiksilver logo,
139
346180
2362
05:48
to come over and sit with the science team
140
348542
2285
05:50
and interpret that science
141
350827
3596
05:54
into aesthetic wetsuits that people might actually wear.
142
354423
3142
05:57
And here's an example of one of the first drawings.
143
357565
2456
06:00
So this is what I call a "don't eat me" wetsuit.
144
360021
3004
06:03
So this takes that banding idea,
145
363025
4269
06:07
takes that banding idea, it's highly visible,
146
367294
2586
06:09
provides a highly disruptive profile,
147
369880
2005
06:11
and is intended to prevent the shark
148
371885
1827
06:13
from considering that you would be ordinary food,
149
373712
2668
06:16
and potentially even create confusion for the shark.
150
376380
3346
06:19
And this one's configured to go with a surfboard.
151
379726
3775
06:23
You can see that dark, opaque panel on the front,
152
383501
2613
06:26
and it's particularly better for the surface,
153
386114
2727
06:28
where being backlit and providing a silhouette
154
388841
2848
06:31
is problematic.
155
391689
1612
06:33
Second iteration is the cryptic wetsuit,
156
393301
2908
06:36
or the one which attempts to hide the wearer
157
396209
1611
06:37
in the water column.
158
397820
1490
06:39
There are three panels on this suit,
159
399310
1690
06:41
and in any given conditions,
160
401000
1624
06:42
one or more of those panels
161
402624
1355
06:43
will match the reflective spectra of the water
162
403979
2590
06:46
so as to disappear fully or partially,
163
406569
2599
06:49
leaving the last panel or panels
164
409168
2192
06:51
to create a disruptive profile in the water column.
165
411360
2887
06:54
And this one's particularly well-suited
166
414247
2165
06:56
to the dive configuration,
167
416412
2447
06:58
so when you're deeper under the water.
168
418859
3068
07:01
So we knew that we had
169
421927
1710
07:03
some really solid science here.
170
423637
1770
07:05
We knew, if you wanted to stand out,
171
425407
1626
07:07
you needed to look stripy,
172
427033
1172
07:08
and we knew if you wanted to be cryptic,
173
428205
1424
07:09
you needed to look like this.
174
429629
1552
07:11
But the acid test is always going to be,
175
431181
1826
07:13
how would sharks really behave
176
433007
1332
07:14
in the context of these patterns and shapes.
177
434339
2731
07:17
And testing to simulate a person in a wetsuit
178
437070
3311
07:20
in the water with a predatory shark
179
440381
1548
07:21
in a natural environment
180
441929
1366
07:23
is actually a lot harder than you might think.
181
443295
1952
07:25
(Laughter)
182
445247
3351
07:28
So we have to bait the rig,
183
448598
2566
07:31
because we need to get the statistical number
184
451164
1544
07:32
of samples through to get the scientific evidence,
185
452708
3024
07:35
and by baiting the rig,
186
455732
789
07:36
we're obviously changing shark behavior.
187
456521
2229
07:38
We can't put humans in the water.
188
458750
1817
07:40
We're ethically precluded from even using
189
460567
2886
07:43
humanoid shapes and baiting them up in the water.
190
463453
2647
07:46
But nevertheless, we started the testing process
191
466100
2272
07:48
in January of this year,
192
468372
1848
07:50
initially with tiger sharks
193
470220
1136
07:51
and subsequently with great white sharks.
194
471356
3339
07:54
The way we did that
195
474695
1435
07:56
was to get a perforated drum which is full of bait,
196
476130
4755
08:00
wrap it in a neoprene skin,
197
480885
1896
08:02
and then run two stereo underwater cameras
198
482781
2563
08:05
to watch how the shark actually engages with that rig.
199
485344
3349
08:08
And because we use stereo,
200
488693
1688
08:10
we can capture all the statistics on how big the shark is,
201
490381
2792
08:13
what angle it comes in at, how quickly it leaves,
202
493173
2256
08:15
and what its behavior is
203
495429
1856
08:17
in an empirical rather than a subjective way.
204
497285
3206
08:20
Because we needed to preserve the scientific method,
205
500491
2488
08:22
we ran a control rig
206
502979
1698
08:24
which was a black neoprene rig
207
504677
3712
08:28
just like a normal black wetsuit
208
508389
1809
08:30
against the, what we call,
209
510198
1479
08:31
SAMS technology rig.
210
511677
2128
08:33
And the results were not just exciting,
211
513805
2728
08:36
but very encouraging,
212
516533
1438
08:37
and today I would like to just give you a snapshot
213
517971
2548
08:40
of two of those engagements.
214
520519
3662
08:44
So here we've got a four-meter tiger shark
215
524181
2120
08:46
engaging the black control rig,
216
526301
3087
08:49
which it had encountered about
217
529388
1341
08:50
a minute and a half before.
218
530729
3960
09:11
Now that exact same shark had engaged,
219
551780
2430
09:14
or encountered this SAMS rig,
220
554210
1830
09:16
which is the Elude SAMS rig,
221
556040
1612
09:17
about eight minutes before,
222
557652
1179
09:18
and spent six minutes circling it, hunting for it,
223
558831
3143
09:21
looking for what it could smell and sense but not see,
224
561974
2805
09:24
and this was the final engagement.
225
564779
2472
09:29
Great white sharks are more confident than the tigers,
226
569734
2953
09:32
and here you see great white shark
227
572687
2048
09:34
engaging a control rig,
228
574735
1407
09:36
so a black neoprene wetsuit,
229
576142
1833
09:37
and going straight to the bottom,
230
577975
1584
09:39
coming up
231
579559
2551
09:42
and engaging.
232
582110
3037
09:46
In contrast to the SAMS technology rig,
233
586257
2683
09:48
this is the banded one,
234
588940
1469
09:50
where it's more tactile,
235
590409
1941
09:52
it's more investigative,
236
592350
1510
09:53
it's more apprehensive,
237
593860
1634
09:55
and shows a reluctance to come straight in and go.
238
595494
4005
10:08
(Applause)
239
608297
7303
10:18
So, it's important for us that all the testing is done independently,
240
618601
4276
10:22
and the University of W.A. is doing the testing.
241
622877
2318
10:25
It'll be an ongoing process.
242
625195
1752
10:26
It's subject to peer review and subject to publication.
243
626947
2409
10:29
It's so important that this concept
244
629356
2343
10:31
is led with the science.
245
631699
1798
10:33
From the perspective of Shark Attack Mitigation Systems,
246
633497
2244
10:35
we're a biotechnology licensing company,
247
635741
2405
10:38
so we don't make wetsuits ourselves.
248
638146
2287
10:40
We'll license others to do that.
249
640433
2280
10:42
But I thought you might be interested
250
642713
959
10:43
in seeing what SAMS technology looks like
251
643672
2001
10:45
embedded in a wetsuit, and to that end,
252
645673
2999
10:48
for the first time, live, worldwide --
253
648672
3216
10:51
(Laughter) —
254
651888
1974
10:53
I can show you what biological adaptation,
255
653862
2896
10:56
science and design looks like in real life.
256
656758
3527
11:00
So I can welcome Sam, the surfer,
257
660285
1897
11:02
from this side. Where are you, Sam?
258
662182
2708
11:04
(Applause)
259
664890
1796
11:06
And Eduardo.
260
666686
1670
11:08
(Applause)
261
668356
1816
11:10
Cheers, mate.
262
670172
2694
11:12
Cheers.
263
672866
2090
11:14
Thanks, gentlemen. (Applause)
264
674956
4964
11:21
So what have we done here?
265
681656
1287
11:22
Well, to my mind, rather than take a blank sheet
266
682943
3017
11:25
and use science as a tool for invention,
267
685960
3320
11:29
we've paid attention to the biological evidence,
268
689280
2856
11:32
we've put importance to the
269
692136
1690
11:33
human anecdotal evidence,
270
693826
1710
11:35
and we've used science as a tool
271
695536
3082
11:38
for translation,
272
698618
1403
11:40
translation of something that was already there
273
700021
2227
11:42
into something that we can use for the benefit of mankind.
274
702248
3571
11:45
And it strikes me that this idea of science
275
705819
1924
11:47
as a tool for translation rather than invention
276
707743
3056
11:50
is one that we can apply much more widely than this
277
710799
2664
11:53
in the pursuit of innovation.
278
713463
1947
11:55
After all, did the Wright brothers
279
715410
2325
11:57
discover manned flight,
280
717735
2052
11:59
or did they observe the biological fact of flight
281
719787
3189
12:02
and translate that mechanically, replicate it
282
722976
3192
12:06
in a way that humans could use?
283
726168
2517
12:08
As for the humble wetsuit,
284
728685
1534
12:10
who knows what oceanwear will look like
285
730219
1941
12:12
in two years' time, in five years' time
286
732160
2951
12:15
or in 50 years' time, but with this new thinking,
287
735111
3092
12:18
I'm guessing there's a fair chance
288
738203
1266
12:19
it won't be pure black.
289
739469
1721
12:21
Thank you.
290
741190
2169
12:23
(Applause)
291
743359
3911
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7