So wrapping the body of a fake seal in bright, horizontally striped LED lights seems to break the silhouette ... is when someone is approached and touched by a shark, or the shark touches their surfboard, paddleboard or similar mode of transport.

“We have shown these lights break up the silhouette of the surfboard into smaller pieces, and that’s clearly something that the shark doesn’t recognize as prey,” Hart said. “It’s sort of like an invisibility cloak but with the exception that we ...

Covering your surfboard in bright lights sounds like an open invitation to great white sharks, but research released Tuesday by Australian scientists found it might actually stave off attacks. Ryan and her fellow researchers showed that seal-shaped boards decked with bright horizontal lights were less likely to be attacked by great white sharks.