Barriere elettromagnetiche antisqualo a Sharm? Prime smentite !

Qualche giorno fa ho scritto un post su un presunto comunicato stampa ufficiale con il quale si informava dell'intenzione di circondare le spiagge ed i reef di Sharm el Sheikh con delle fantomatiche barriere elettromagnetiche antisqualo.
Pare che invece il Governatore del Sud Sinai abbia già smentito il coinvolgimento di Riccardo Sturla Avogadri in un eventuale progetto di protezione delle coste.



photo by Mark Addison

Riassuntino veloce:

Riccardo Sturla Avogadri diceva:
"Il progetto consiste in una barriera ad onde elettromagnetiche creata attraverso degli elettrodi disposti di fronte le spiagge che faranno da filtro solo per gli squali e le razze non per gli altri pesci. (...) Questo tipo di tecnologia esiste già per difese personali ma nel mondo non è mai stata usata per proteggere una intera area. Il progetto è piaciuto molto e il giorno dopo siamo stati autorizzati a recarci in mare aperto al limite del parco marino per attirare dei Longimanus. Il Governatore ha anche richiesto al parco marino di collaborare con noi.(...)
Al momento abbiamo ricevuto l’incarico di costruire 13 barriere di 100 mt per i principali hotel di Sharm El Sheikh."

Il Governatore, General Abdel Fadeel Sousha, invece pare abbia dichiarato questo:
"He (the company's owner) showed us a video in a meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh on devices used to protect beaches from sharks and made verbal and purely theoretical proposals that didn't persuade me on a personal level," said General Sousha. "I asked him for a practical demonstration in front of a committee of experts so we could be sure the devices work effectively. This still hasn't happened."

In italiano:
"Il proprietario della società (Riccardo Sturla Avogadri n.d.a.) ci ha mostrato, durante un meeting a Sharm el Sheikh, un video sui dispositivi utilizzati per proteggere le spiagge dagli squali e ci ha fatto proposte solo verbali e teoriche che non mi hanno persuaso a livello personale. Gli ho chiesto una dimostrazione pratica di fronte ad una commissione di esperti, in modo da essere sicuri che il dispositivo funzioni effettivamente. Questo non è ancora accaduto."

Articolo completo da Ahram Online:

Governor denies agreeing electro-magnetic shield to prevent sharks
Experts say the electro-magnetic shield shocks swimmers not sharks
Dalia Farouq, Sunday 2 Jan 2011

General Abdel Fadeel Sousha, governor of South Sinai, has denied media reports that he has agreed with the owner of an Italian company (Shark Academy) to install an electro-magnetic shield along the Sharm El-Sheikh coastline to protect it from shark attacks.

"He (the company's owner) showed us a video in a meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh on devices used to protect beaches from sharks and made verbal and purely theoretical proposals that didn't persuade me on a personal level.

"I asked him for a practical demonstration in front of a committee of experts so we could be sure the devices work effectively. This still hasn't happened."

Shousha went on to add that "Shark Academy's claim that it has started supplying thirteen hotels in Sharm El-Sheikh is incorrect because it hasn't backed up its claims and we won't allow our coasts to be an experimental field for untested devices and hardware or half-solutions that expose the lives of our guests to risks."

Shousha's scepticism is well founded according to Ziad Basel, chairman of the technical committee of the Chamber of Diving Tourism and Marine Activities.

Basel, explained that the electro-magnetic shield that Shark Academy proposed is not certified by scientists according to criteria applied anywhere in the world.

According to Mary Levine, head of Princeton University's shark research institute and part of the team of experts that looked into reasons for the spate of shark attacks in Sharm El-Sheikh last December, the electro-magnetic shield doesn't work.

The system, she revealed, has already failed to prevent sharks from entering swimming areas in Natal, South Africa. Instead swimmers received a shock as they swam.

Even when the system was developed and produced in a different form by an Australian company under the name Shark Shell, it also failed to protect swimmers from shark attacks.