Australia has a come up with an inventive solution to a recent shark problem.  Scientists have tagged over 300 sharks with transmitters that trigger once an individual shark gets within 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) of apopulated beach. 

The transmitters are linked to Surf Life Saving Western Australia's Twitter account (@SLSWA) and automatically tweet an update on the shark’s location.  The generated tweets describe the location, time, and type of shark found, and since June, hundreds of tweets have succesfully alerted people to tiger, bronze whaler, and great white sharks that have shown up at beach locations around Western Australia.

Tagging sharks to make them social media proficient was precipitated by a slew of recent shark attacks on Australian shores.  There have been six deadly shark attacks in the past two years, including one as recent as this past October.

This string of deaths in in the area has prompted local officials to set up “kill zones,” where professional fisherman will be able to kill any sharks of a certain size, but the government hopes the new tweeting sharks will prevent uneccessary killing of both sharks and humans.