Shark Eyes is a visual shark deterrent, designed and used by the most experienced watermen in Australian waters – abalone divers.

Abalone divers have more encounters with sharks in Australia on a regular basis than anyone. Shark Eyes has also been endorsed by marine scientists, shark researchers, abalone divers and professional water sports athletes.

We also offer a practical, Shark Safety Guide which contains detailed knowledge about shark behaviour and how you can lower risk. This Guide was developed by working closely with the people mentioned above, because nobody understands shark behaviour better.

How does it work?

 

1. Sharks have high visual capabilities

It is well known that sharks have superior senses. Research of late has discovered that this includes their vision – and they do in fact have high visual capabilities. Sharks have been found to detect surface prey visually (Strong, 1996) having high visual capabilities (Gruber & Cohen, 1985).Sharks are ambush predators, relying heavily on the element of surprise to capture prey (Strong, 1996). Sharks employ predatory tactics which involve a risk assessment before attacking it’s prey (Lima & Dill, 1989). “Shark Eyes” aims to alter the sharks initial risk assessment thereby altering its “strike” behaviour to an “abort” behaviour (Martin et al., 2005).Shark Eyes Deterrents are unlike any of the sharks natural prey and is designed to mimic that of a human eye. Hours of Research has gone into designing a set of eyes that we know sharks can see. Science is unsure as to whether sharks can see colour or not though many scientists believe they can, they do know they can see contrast. Shark Eyes – the design of the eye – achieves depth of field through contrast.

Great White Shark checking out the photographer Phillip Thurston

 

2. Shark Eyes eliminates the predatory element of surprise.

When the element of surprise is gone, sharks often abandon their attack.Sharks are ambush predators just like lions and Tigers. Like most land apex predators, shark predation relies heavily on the element of surprise. We know and have witnessed sharks change their behaviour and become more cautious once eye contact has been made.Shark Eyes Deterrents are designed to mimic human eye contact, making the shark feel like it has been spotted, taking away their element of surprise. This has the potential to change the behaviour of the shark and prevent an attack.

 

Marc Payne (Ambassador) staring at a Great White taking away the element of surprise

 

3. Mimicry / Eyespots

Shark Eyes Deterrents are simply copying what nature is already doing.Mimicry / Eyespots are scientifically proven as a successful defence mechanism seen often in nature. Land and water animals are known to adapt to mimic large false eyes mostly on their rears to fend off predators. Mimicry is seen in birds, butterflies, moths, cats, caterpillars, fish and more.Humans have successfully used mimicry as a line of defence in India. Face masks were applied to the back of the locals heads to protect them from tigers. It reduced the amount of attacks.

 

Mimicry is seen in fish to defend from larger predators & humans using mimicry to defend against tiger attacks.

 

Why use Shark Eyes Deterrents?

 

The threat of shark attack is slowly eating away at our carefree attitude as shark encounters and attacks are increasing in Australian waters. This is affecting our enjoyment in the ocean.The intention of the Shark Eyes visual deterrent and the additional information booklet is to offer you practical information, make you feel safer and more confident in the water and importantly minimise your risk of an unwanted encounter or attack.

 

• Sharks have high visual capabilities and rely on their vision when hunting
• Mimicry is proven to work in nature- Shark Eyes Deterrents are mimicking what is already working in nature.
• Shark Eyes Deterrents are non invasive (Does not harm any human or shark.) Regardless of your political opinion Shark Eyes is for everyone!
• Shark Eyes Deterrents are affordable-so that it can be accessed by all ocean lovers.
• Shark Eyes Deterrents can be applied to many different water craft-i.e. surfboards, bodyboards, fins, canoes, wetsuits, diving tanks, swimming apparel and more.
• Shark Eyes Deterrents do not need recharging and is not at risk of mechanical/electrical breakdown, as long as it is applied it is effective.
• Due to a lack in scientific evidence at present, a way forward in minimising shark attacks is to trust the anecdotal evidence derived from professional watermen and women.
• Having Shark Eyes Deterrents watching out for you when you can’t, is a reassuring comfort.

 

 

Scientific Theory behind Shark Eyes Deterrents

 

Sharks are visual predators that predominately use the element of surprise when attacking (Strong,1996), usually attacking from behind and beneath its prey (Tricas and McCosker 1984). Strong(1996) found sharks were initially attracted to their prey with sense of smell but appeared to use vision the closer it approached.

A shark’s vision is well developed and more elaborate than most fishes (Gilbert, 1963), having duplex retinas containing both rod and cone photoreceptors (Gruber & Cohen, 1985) indicating they have high visual capabilities and ability to see colour.

When predating, sharks undertake a risk assessment before attacking its prey (Lima and Dill, 1989; Martin et al., 2005) and it’s at this point where “Shark eyes” is designed to assist watermen.“Shark Eyes Deterrents” are intended to signal the approaching predator that it has been detected, effectively saying “I’ve seen you” and thereby altering the shark’s predatory behaviour. “Shark Eyes Deterrents” therefore aims to alter the sharks risk assessment and deter the shark from attacking. By taking away the element of surprise, the shark has a reduced chance of successfully capturing its prey.

For example, an adult white shark is usually not agile enough to capture a fleeing, darting seal hence it generally attacks its prey by surprise (Tricas and McCosker, 1984). Similarly, Strong (1996) observed in numerous occasions that fur seals and sea lions easily avoided white sharks, suggesting that once the shark was visually detected, the change of capture of the seal prey drop considerably. Once a shark sees the “Shark Eyes Deterrents” and realises it has been detected, it may now be optimal for the shark to abandon its attack.

As described by Martin et al., (2005) the stages of predatory behaviour by a white shark involves a “Gather Info” stage before deciding to “Strike” or “Abort” an attack. It’s at this “Gather Info” stage that “Shark Eyes” aims to influence the sharks risk assessment, altering the shark’s behaviour to “Abort”.Figure 1. (Above) Hypothesized decision tree of predatory tactics by white sharks on surface borne Cape fur seals at Seal Island, South Africa. Modified from Martin et al., (2005). Additionally, the concept that “eyespots” used in mimicry (or finspots in fish) can reduce the risk of a predatory attack is well supported (Blest 1957, Vallin et al., 2005) and further complements the theory to “Shark Eyes”.

 

Shark Deterrent Frequently Asked Questions

 

Q1. How can eye stickers stop a shark charging/ambushing?

Answer: We believe once a shark is fired up and has made its decision to ambush prey in attack mode and is already charging not much will deter it at that point except a shark cage. 

This deterrent is not failsafe and not a shark cage and we do not encourage folks to think of it this way. We believe the eyes can help before this happens, as the shark is conducting its risk assessment and deciding what to attack.

Anecdotally and from what we have seen and experienced we believe the eyes has merit to help to alter the sharks decision to fire up in the first place as it makes its risk assessment of what prey to hit. The aim of the eyes is to hereby psychologically trick the shark into thinking its been spotted, and in turn doubt its attack, altering its choice to rather attack prey that has not seen it and does not realise it is there. In this moment element of surprise is hopefully lost and the sharks behaviour is potentially changed to become more cautious of the object with the eyes, giving you time to get out of the water. We believe the eyes has merit with this initial encounter to change the Sharks behaviour and potentially abort the attack. 

Q2. Do sharks have good vision and can the Shark see the eyes in murky water?

Answer: It is a common misconception that all sharks have bad vision. Each shark species differ in their visual capabilities, but its our belief that most sharks regardless of their vision still conduct a visual inspection as part of their risk assessment before they fire up to attack. In dirty water we feel this is just done at a closer range. From what we have observed most Sharks don’t just swim around bumping into things and eating random objects without first deciding wether it’s potential prey and lining up the attack intentionally. 

Depending on the species, water visibility and light the visual assessment will be made at a differing distance each time.  Some scientists believe that the Great White shark for instance has great vision, rods and cones and can see its prey 10-15m away in low light and bad visibility, and may be conducting a visual inspection at this point of distance

Q3. Why is the eye blue and why is it a human eye?

Every aspect of our eyes was intentionally designed around what we know about sharks visual capabilities. Our eye design is blue intentionally- as blue is the last colour to be lost in the water column at depth, for divers this is relevant.

The eyes are human shape intentionally- this is because we do not want to appear as a sharks usual food, the goal is to instil some doubt in the shark with an unknown eye they are not familiar with. Orca eyes are black and seal like and appear very similar to a seal- a GW sharks usual food- we don’t want that!

Contrast- it is assumed sharks don’t need colour vision, but it is believed by the scientific community that they see contrast extremely well. Hence our eye was designed with contrast, to stand out even more to the shark underwater.

Q4. Are the bigger eyes more effective?

Answer: We have not yet tested small vs big eyes and hope to test this in the near future. But from what we have seen anecdotally yes it is our belief that the larger the eye sticker the more effective it should be at helping to deter the shark. 

Q5. Do the Shark Eyes stickers attract sharks?

Answer: From the testing we have done to date and from what we have seen, we feel strongly that the eyes DO NOT not attract sharks. There has been no reports of this anecdotally, neither have we seen any evidence in our use and testing of the eyes to suggest that they attract sharks. 

Q6. Are the Eyes tested/what studies have been done?

Due to limited resources and funding limiting us in the early years, offical testing commenced in 2025. As a small private company we are so excited it is now ongoing. Aside from anecdotal testing, we are currently officially testing the eyes on sharks and have conducted 2x trails this year already in 2 differing locations. The shark species we have gathered data on to date are; Lemon shark, Tiger Shark, Tawny nurse Shark, Shovel Nose shark, Black tip Reef Shark. As you can imagine we need to travel with large teams, a ton of very expensive equipment to very remote locations to achieve this so it takes time. We are so excited to bring these results to you as soon as possible as testing continues.The purpose of our validation trials is to basically test the hypothesis that the Shark Eyes decal alters a sharks behaviour, either in the form of avoidance or deterrence.

The recent trials were preliminary trials that allowed us to test the methodology and gain initial video footage which has allowed us to tweek and fine tune for future trials. 

Findings

In the footage we definitively saw the Shark Eyes decoy change both fish and sharks behaviours – ranging from wariness on approach, sharp changes in direction when contact with eyes was made, to sharks giving a wide berth and fish shoals preferentially avoiding.

The trends seen in the current footage really gives us confidence that our hypothesis is worthwhile trialling further, hopefully gaining enough interactions to have a robust data set to analyse and provide significant results. 

Additionally, the amount of data and information being gained by these trials is huge, not only from a shark eyes point of view but for the broader scientific community, being able to conduct this groundbreaking science with sharks is very exciting.

Q7. Have humans ever tested fake eyes as a means of defence on any animals before?

Answer: Prior to this the fake eye theory has never been tested on sharks before. It has however been tested on other wild land ambush predators before with positive results for the fake eyes theory. An Australian scientist tested fake eyes against lions on the behinds of cows in Botswana with remarkable results, please click the link to learn more:

https://www.sharkeyesglobal.com/pages/eye-cow-case-study

Man has been using this ancient theory for years in India against tigers, and native Americans were said to use fake eyes too in preventing cougar attacks.

https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/05/science/face-masks-fool-the-bengal-tigers.html

References

Blest, A.D. (1957) The function of eyespot patterns in the lepidoptera. Behaviour, 11, 209 – 256.

Gilbert, P.W. (1963) The visual apparatus. In: Sharks and survival. P.W Gilbert, ed. D.C. Heath and Co., Boston, pp. 283 – 326.

Lima, S.L., Dill, L.M. (1990) Behavioural decisions made under the risk of predation: a review asn prospectus. Can. J. Zool 68:619 – 640

Strong, W.R. (1996) Shape Discrimination and Visual Predatory Tactics in White Sharks. In: Klimley, A.P. & Ainley, D. (Eds.) Great White Sharks. The biology of Carcharodon carcharias : 229 – 240.

Tricas, T.C. and McCosker, J.E. (1984) Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences series 4 1984 43:221-238

Vallin, A., Jakobsson, S. Wicklund, C. (2005) Prey survival by predator intimidation: an experimental study of peacock butterfly defense against blue tits. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B, 272, 1203 – 1207.