Don’t really see how it could make a difference. If the sharks are about they won’t have a problem getting your fish.

 From my brief expereinece of using them between 70m and almost 300m, in an area notorious for sharking, we didn't lose many at all. The ability to get a steady retrieve on medium size fish, and go flat out the last 30m, seems to help. The old Alvey deck winches do better than rods. But, if they are really fired up, nothing will stop it. 

 Forget about releasing anything that is undersize because if you get it up passed the sharks it will be dead anyway

We fish coral bay and im not convinced anything beats the sharks 

moving spots is all you can do  

in coral bay with electric ,never lost a single fish to sharks ,however I think its more to do with time of year as I've been in may, June , July , august and September and all bar may was shark city .the later in the year it got the worse the sharks got

 or two, if they come up at the right price. To me, it is still just hauling up packets of fillets, no real fun in it anymore, but it does put good quality eating fish in the freezer. We really struggled inshore on demersals, where we normally do very well, this year. never seen it so bad. I'm beginning to suspect that Ningaloo Campout comp, held just before we get there, had something to do with it. Lot of boats flogging that area , (organiser said they had 80 or 90 people this year)  intensively, just before we get there, can't help. Or it may have had nothing to do with it, just a bad year. 

 ive got a big electric crano can give it a shot on your next trip  ill make sure the other skipper isnt around to ping

ill pm ya 

I don’t think it would make a difference. I just move spots, trying to beat them is pointless.  

I've been on a few charters where we had at least one of the group fishing with an electric reel.

While the rest of us were being monstered by sharks, the electrics never got whacked.

My experience is a small sample data, but the skipper of the charter agreed that it is the norm. The electrics give you a far better chance of getting the fish to the boat.

Not sure if depth matters. We were fishing 30-80m, Shark Bay and Monties locations. I didn't have the eletric and I was losing probably 50% of my fish to the sharks when we took notice of how the electrics were not getting touched.

Whilst I have no first hand comparisons of sharkings when electric reels are used alongside manual reels I can understand what some are saying that by using an electric reel you may reduce the possibility of being sharked.  Ranmar's comment that Alvey winches will do better than rods comes as no surprise.  Keeping the fish moving on the retrieve with its head up will help.  The traditional pump/lift and wind technique when using a rod provides an opportunity whereby the fish can get its head below its tail and dive for the bottom.  I saw this many times in NZ when punters on the day charter boat I deckied on hooked hapuka or bass on tackle that was on the light side.  We would let them go at it for a while but when it became clear they were under gunned we would step in and hand line the fish in keeping a steady lift hand over hand.  Most times it worked.

Minimising the time between hook up and boating a fish by using a electric reel sounds like it may reduce sharkings.  Other than that use heavy drags and crank like crazy but don't pump and wind.  Having said that if the shark is switched on it's unlikely to make a difference imo. 

When good fish are being lost to sharks, this not a good situation. Fish stocks are being greatly reduced by the fish not being able to escape from sharks whilst hooked up and fishos are catching more fish than perhaps they would to ensure that they get a feed of fish.

The sharks in some cases taking half of the fish hooked. 

yes, you may have a slightly better chance with electric as you dont have to struggle with a large fish. but if that sharks wants that fish, which they all do, you will never beat them... you may get the odd one up. when you have a few of you fishing and say 2 are manually pulling them up and one has an electric, of course the shark will take the easiest target 

i know this as i see it way too often... and what are Fisheries going to do about the shark problem - you guessed it 'FA'

I've been using electric reels for a few years now on and off.  It is impossible to "beat" the sharks.  They can swim a lot faster than an electric reel can wind.  I feel like I get sharked less though because with an electric reel you can often get a constant rate of line retrieval without the back and forth jigging motion of fighting a fish on a manual outfit.  

I believe there is a lot more commotion in fighting a fish manually that sends vibrations through the water to attract a shark.  

And I thought using the electric would be less fun than pulling in manually but in practice I enjoy it just as much.  You still have to find the fish and get them to bite which is the greatest challenge and gives the most satisfaction to me.

 What battery packs are you guys using other than the house battery? Bought 2 at an extremely generous price but yet to use them. Would like to buy 2 batteries for them 

While I still believe the electric reels on average give you more chance of getting a fish to the side of the boat, like others have mentioned, I believe it is the constant pressure and retrieve on the hooked fish that gives the advantage to the electrics.

For the last 5 years or so, I have mostly fished with a jigging rod and have found using quick constant very short lifts, keeping plenty of momentum, with just one quick wind retrieve of the reel for each rod lift, also helps because you have a better chance of removing that pause. The sharks (like many other fish) appear to mostly take advantage of when you pause or your fish manages to turn back downwards (as Alan James mentioned). Likewise I found when jigging in areas with sharks, a fast retrieve reduced the chance of getting snipped by a shark on the way up, but you dare not pause (which is a bugger as that often also works well for mid-water pelagics).

 Battery King aren't bad.

Used the drive off method a few times.

Got a few fish up before they worked it out. 

 I use the house battery on my boat and just run it on the house battery when moving spots to put some charge back in.  Never had an issue doing this.  Fishing on a mates boat I've taken along a lithium battery that I use for the minn kota on my tinnie.  Reels like the tanacom don't use a great deal of power.