Shark-thwarting scientists from Sydney’s Macquarie University have come up with an ingenious way to make surfers look practically invisible to great whites.

Great whites have terribly ordinary eyesight and are thought to attack humans only after mistaking them for fish-shaped food. 

Using seal-shaped decoys towed behind a boat, the researchers found that horizontally striped LED lights prevented Great Whites from rising up and attacking.

The next step is to get it onto real-life surfboards and to also find out whether other species, like bull and tiger sharks, are also blinded by the light.

In 2016, Brett Connellan lost three-quarters of his left quad muscle after being attacked by a great white shark in the waters off the New South Wales coast, and he told The Project that he’d be up for trying the new tech. 

“A big part of me getting back in the water is coming to terms with the risks that you have to undertake, in order to be out there in an environment that I love,” Connellan said.

“Anything that can allow me to do that in a way I feel comfortable, I think, is always a positive”

Although Connellan is on board with the technology, he acknowledged that other surfers might need some convincing. 

“Surfers are notoriously picky when it comes to the crafts that they ride. There is a reason why surfers have been riding the same type of support since the 70s and 80s,” Connellan explained.

“I think being able to introduce this to the masses when it comes to surfing is, to me, probably the biggest hurdle that a technology like this has overcome.”