Federal officials are praising a shark repellent developed at the Florida Keys Community College.
The project was funded by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant. In a recent report to Congress, NOAA officials highlighted the repellent among efforts in coastal communities to reduce the numbers of sharks caught in commercial seafood harvests.
The Key West Citizen reports that the first batch of the repellent caused such a stench on the college's Key West campus that it was moved to a storage locker several miles away. That batch was made from rotting shark carcasses, and it was tended by a research assistant with no sense of smell.
FKCC researcher Patrick Rice says the repellent now is comprised of synthetic compounds packed into time-release capsules hooked onto fishermen's lines.
