Technology wins! Beachgoers and researchers now have a new tool to help them track great white sharks in the waters. The new mobile app can even send alerts if the animals are nearby.
The smartphone app is called Sharktivity and it became available for the iPhone on July 1. The mobile app is 100 percent free.
Apart from allowing mobile users to follow the great white sharks around the world, Sharktivity also enables users to submit their own sightings.
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy developed the mobile app in collaboration with Amelia Rose Designs and Everglades Boats. The Sharktivity app even allows users to enlist themselves as a "citizen scientist" when they report their own great white shark sighting information and photos.
With more people posting information on the great white sharks' locations, researchers are given more data to work on for scientific studies.
The new mobile app was also made possible by the efforts of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the Cape Cod National Seashore and the towns of South Shore and Cape Cod.
Each town located in the Lower Cape will have two key officers who will be tasked of posting shark alerts using the Sharktivity app. What's great is that the app users will be able to receive the shark sighting alerts even if they're not logged on to the application.
The real-time shark alerts posted by the Sharktivity app will be available to the general public via the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy's website.
The Sharktivity app was first released for Apple users. Android users will have to wait a while, but the version is already underway.
The mobile app's team has taken measures to deal with the possibility of posting hoax shark sightings. The posts coming from beachgoers will be examined first before it can be uploaded to the app. Users who will submit their own shark sightings will be asked to provide a phone number.
Moreover, the app will record the location of phones where the sighting has been reported by the users. This will allow the team to veto any shark sightings that are far from the waters.
Cynthia Wigren, the Conservancy's executive director, said that apart from becoming a potentially major source of shark information for scientists, the mobile app also has a public safety role to play for local beachgoers.
"Most people have phones with them at the beach, and the reasoning is getting information to them as soon as possible," said Wigren.
The Sharktivity app can also be a vital tool for fishermen, boaters and even pilots who operate along the East Coast.
Photo: Bellamy Andrew | Flickr
