Shark repellent wet suit? Not exactly, but interesting.

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Painter

Contributor
Messages
152
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54
Location
Provincetown, MA
# of dives
100 - 199
I live on Cape Cod during the summer and from my deck on Provincetown harbor I can see, about a mile away, a stretch of beach where large numbers of seals haul themselves out. I am told by locals that there is at least one great white shark that is also resident when the seals are there.

I won't go, here, into questioning the wisdom of people who swim off of that stretch of beach, though it must be said that I haven't heard of any shark attacks there, either. I have friends who swim daily all summer, over on my side of the harbor and none of them are missing significant parts, at least not as a result of shark attacks. Still, it got me wondering about how to make a shark attack less likely.

So I found this Ted talk.
I have to wonder, given what looks to me like compelling evidence that certain color patterns on a wet suit can, at the very least, reduce the likelihood of a shark attack, why aren't some of the big wet suit manufacturers beginning to incorporate some of these ideas?
 
cost. black neoprene is probably cheapest. and there aren't enough shark attacks to matter.

the only way they could sell a "shark-repellent" wetsuit would be to stoke the irrational fear that sharks want to eat us, which would not go over well with the target audience (i.e. surfers and divers know the reality of the situation.)

and... if I make a wetsuit that is marketed as "shark repellent" but the user gets bit anyway (by a myopic shark? or maybe the user has a good day of spearfishing and a shark wants the catch...), do I get sued? probably.

if I think of more reasons, I'll post again.
 
Can I make my white stripes vertical instead of horizontal ... ya know, to make me look taller rather than wider ... would the shark know the difference? Maybe I'l look like a really loooooooong predator?
 
a cost/benefit analysis would have to go something like this...

total number of wetsuit-wearing people in the water over the course of a year? (millions?)

total number of them that were attacked by a shark? (single digits? maybe a couple dozen?)

fraction of regular wetsuit-wearing people that get attacked by a shark? (simple division of above)

fraction of people that we could convince to pay a little extra for a "shark-repellent" wetsuit? (heck, call it 10%... highly optimistic, but we'll go with it.)

likelihood that the 10% that buys the shark-repellent wetsuit changes the statistics? well, we could assume that 10% of the victims are now wearing shark-repellent wetsuits (if we can corner 10% of the wetsuit market with the shark-repellent style.) So we could expect, if the suit works as advertised, that the number of shark attacks would decrease by 10%. But the number of shark attacks typically varies by more than 10% from one year to the next anyway.

which means, statistically, the effect of the shark-repellent wetsuit is lost in the statistical "noise". And that would bring us back to the only way to effectively market them would be to stoke the irrational fear of sharks.
 
Now that I think about it... many Waterproof wetsuits have some form of color variation (I have a 7mm W4 which is gray and black.) Maybe we could do some stats on what kind of wetsuit, black or patterned, people were wearing when they were attacked during the past 30 years.

Then again... the number of attacks is pretty small, and I'd bet the majority of victims weren't wearing a wetsuit at all (i.e. they were just playing in the water at the beach.)
 
Best shark repellent I've found while diving: cameras and bubbles. Bring a camera on a dive and the sharks will do their darndest to stay away from you. The bubbles...

One of the funniest shark encounters I've had while diving was a few years ago off the back side of Catalina Island. The water was exceptionally warm that year and there were tuna in the area. Several fishing boats were a ways off... and the blue sharks were coming around to take advantage of the situation.

My son and I dropped off the dive boat, paused about 10 feet below the surface to adjust. My son was looking down, adjusting his mask... and when he looked up there was a blue shark right in his face. My son exhaled and the shark took off, couldn't get away from us fast enough. Fortunately I had my gopro running and was able to follow him for a short bit until he darted through the kelp and disappeared.
 
Most of the time I’m trying to get a close encounter with sharks. Granted they are not great whites, but I’d be more interested in a wetsuit that attracts sharks.

Hey, nothing wrong with great whites! Go to youtube, search "great white duane". (This is NOT my video... but it gives anyone that dives KL at least hold a sliver of hope to see a GW cruising by.)
 
Hey, nothing wrong with great whites! Go to youtube, search "great white duane". (This is NOT my video... but it gives anyone that dives KL can at least hold a sliver of hope to see a GW cruising by.)
Tempted to add KL to my bucket list. How cold is it there?
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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