In 2002, an Australian company called Shark Shield released a brick-size transponder meant to keep away the worst fear of every diver and surfer: sharks. The thinking behind Shark Shield’s eponymous gadget is simple enough. Sharks have electroreceptors in their snouts, called ampullae of Lorenzini, that detect electric fields for navigation and predation. By emitting an irritating electric field, the idea goes, the Shark Shield would trigger a nasty sensation in the ampullae, forcing even the hungriest hammerhead to turn on its fin.

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Six weeks ago, the Monterey Bay Aquarium released a young white shark into the ocean, and the swimmer has already cruised down the coast to the waters off Mexico.

The shark, which spent 162 days at the aquarium after it was accidentally caught by a local fisherman, is the first to carry two different tracking tags.

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George Burgess, the director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, announced today that fatal attacks from the toothy predators dropped to a two-decade low worldwide. Only a single swimmer was lost in 2007, compared to four each in the two years before. Granted, that doesnt mean sharks are leaving us alone completely. The number of attacks actually increased from 2006 to 2007, jumping from 63 to 71.

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