Equipped with a camera, turbines, and a painted anxious stare, Kenny — a decoy seal made from cork and aluminum — is a secret weapon for a research team in Quebec this summer. The goal of the figure is to attract sharks near Brion Island in Quebec’s Magdalen Islands and allow researchers from the St. Lawrence Shark Observatory to tag the great white sharks in the area.
According to Marc-André Gaudreau, a mechanical engineering professor at Université du Québec in Trois-Rivières, there has been an increase in shark sightings and public discussion about them in recent years. Gaudreau, along with two students, Marc-André Baril and William Messier, designed Kenny over the course of a year, dedicating hundreds of hours to its completion. The team used pliable aluminum as the core material and surrounded it with natural cork to ensure that sharks wouldn’t injure themselves if they bit down on the decoy.
Once deployed in the water, Kenny will float on the surface behind a boat from Grand Entry Island. The seal is equipped with two turbines and cameras, allowing it to be remotely controlled. A drone will fly above to monitor Kenny’s progress.
The idea for Kenny came about last summer when the team attempted to attract sharks to their boat using bait without success. They realized they needed a decoy, and a seal seemed like the obvious choice since it’s a common prey for sharks. Jeffrey Gallant, the scientific director of the St. Lawrence Shark Observatory, mentioned that the team wants to move away from baiting sharks as they don’t want sharks to see humans or boats as food sources.
Kenny will be used in the water for the first time on Wednesday. During preparations for the mission, the team has already spotted two great white sharks. They have high hopes for Kenny’s effectiveness and believe it may be the first time a decoy like this has been used in Quebec or even in Canada.
The Magdalen Islands are known for their rich marine life, including sharks. Last year, during a previous expedition, the team detected four sharks in just half a day. They noticed that the seals in the area did not venture far from the shoreline, indicating their awareness of lurking sharks. Upon inspecting the shoreline, they found dead seals and seals with bite marks and wounds from sharks. The team believes that the region’s seal population attracts juvenile and subadult sharks transitioning from a fish to a marine mammal diet.
In case of any damage to Kenny during the attempts to lure sharks, the team has a spare decoy named Kenny B. They hope that encountering many sharks and damaging the decoy will be indicative of the success of the expedition.
Video: [Kayaking fisherman shocked by great white shark on the line](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYyOON6Yt84)
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