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This is not exactly news. I've seen this mentioned in at least one BBC TV documentary, and I found mention here of a talk given in 1999 by Andrew Gill and Tom Lisney of University of Liverpool - Electroreception in hammerhead sharks.
ABSTRACT:
Fish biologists have demonstrated that teleost (bony) fish, with an acute visual sense, can choose prey on the basis of size or shape in relation to the costs and benefits involved. The question that we are interested in is whether sharks, in particular the hammerheads (Sphyrnidae) with their amazing variation in cephalofoil expansion, can use their electroreceptive sense in a similar manner to discern different prey sizes. To answer this intriguing question, we have initiated a study of bonnethead sharks (S. tiburo) housed at the Blue Planet Aquarium (UK) utilising artificially created bioelectric fields. The electrical circuit is designed to be variable and to emit bioelectric fields equivalent to those that emanate from the natural prey of the sharks. The preliminary results of this study show that the bonnetheads have a similar swimming behaviour to that described in the wild and respond to the electrical stimulus with the typical tight turning behaviour seen in bonnetheads and other hammerhead species juveniles. We also found that the bonnetheads have different activity patterns depending on the time of day and a greater response to the electrical stimulus during the night. Future research aims to determine whether the bonnetheads are able to choose their prey on the basis of size and type, to determine the threshold levels of electroreception in relation to changes in behaviour and to collaborate in studies utilising similar and other species of hammerhead shark.
ABSTRACT:
Fish biologists have demonstrated that teleost (bony) fish, with an acute visual sense, can choose prey on the basis of size or shape in relation to the costs and benefits involved. The question that we are interested in is whether sharks, in particular the hammerheads (Sphyrnidae) with their amazing variation in cephalofoil expansion, can use their electroreceptive sense in a similar manner to discern different prey sizes. To answer this intriguing question, we have initiated a study of bonnethead sharks (S. tiburo) housed at the Blue Planet Aquarium (UK) utilising artificially created bioelectric fields. The electrical circuit is designed to be variable and to emit bioelectric fields equivalent to those that emanate from the natural prey of the sharks. The preliminary results of this study show that the bonnetheads have a similar swimming behaviour to that described in the wild and respond to the electrical stimulus with the typical tight turning behaviour seen in bonnetheads and other hammerhead species juveniles. We also found that the bonnetheads have different activity patterns depending on the time of day and a greater response to the electrical stimulus during the night. Future research aims to determine whether the bonnetheads are able to choose their prey on the basis of size and type, to determine the threshold levels of electroreception in relation to changes in behaviour and to collaborate in studies utilising similar and other species of hammerhead shark.
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Anonymous
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Doesnt the quote you pasted talk about the cephalafoil ideas that scientists had? If so the article mentions this.