I am wondering what you Swaylockians think about"anti-shark" markings on the bottom of boards. I am referring to the bold black contrasting lines on bottom of board that is supposed to confuse sharks and bite the guy next to you. Should I put them on my new stick? Or not worth the time. I have seen largemouth bass blow up on topwater lures that dont look natural at all. So I am skeptical. Fish are gonna be fish. What say you?
I think it’s probably wishful thinking as you suspect, but this is what I did. Nothing to loose and had fun doing it with my buddy. Mike
yum, yum yellow with menarche blanket technique.
I mean Mexican blanket technique.
Everybody knows the only thing to protect you from a shark is a lucky necklace. My wife insists I wear a lucky bloody hambone necklace.
BB30, Ouch. With lovin’ like that, who needs trouble? It is my understanding that the anti-shark lines were to emulate a Man O’ War jellyfish. The lines are to be undulating and with bulbs on them here and there like tentacles. They are the one creature a shark will avoid. You simulate the view from underneath of a jellyfish floating in the water. Sharks also are repulsed by magnetic fields. For years I have toyed with the idea of using the magnetic tape about 1/8" thick and cutting out these tentacle patterns and inlaying them into the foam before lamination. Might be an interesting experiment but don’t want to push the error side of the trial on this one.
If your asking the question, then??? You really should change your undies.
Google Up: Sea Snake Markings and Patterns.
What about black and white orca markings? Aren’t they the one predator of great whites?
Sharks have poor sight, they work off electrical impulses like blank said ?
I’ve made things with this item, it turns a 9 V battery into stun gun voltage. All for less than $5.
Add a variable switch to put out a random or constant pulse and you could deter even the biggest sharks.
Or attract them…
Always used a break up design on the bottom in Hawaii, I hate tiger sharks!
While I love the thought of keeping them away, I’ve long suspected that this is a waste of time.
When viewed from below, assuming some degree of backlighting from the sun, all you see is a silhouette. I really doubt a shark will care to notice the pattern on the bottom of the board.
Searching around, there seems to be disagreement as to whether smell or hearing are sharks strongest, most relied on senses with electro sensing in strong 3rd place. Visual sense is well down the list. So for hunting it’s pretty easy to say what they would rely on. The concept of the pattern on surfboard originated in a human mind and we are all (excepting for the blind), very visual dominant.
Yes DrStrange, the visual idea seems to be a human interpretation like when people say An attack was a case of mistaken identity, the shark thought you were a seal. The shark doesn’t need to think, everything is food to him.
Thanks for all the replies back. Gonna go ahead and do some tinting. I will show results in pics when done. And to Roaster, I have a topwater bass lure with those colors of orange. Too funny.
That IS funny. Mostly that was just my buddy and I sharing our last beers and laughs together as he was dying of cancer. No bummer here. A celebration of two of our favorite things; surfing and bullshitting each other over a couple of beers. I had a huge ray glide under me while on that board that gave me pause. Two days later we we scrambled out after a friend saw white swim by us. Me on a different board.Have fun fishritter. Mike
There have been a lot of scientific research on Shark repellents. From visual , to electric , to chemical. Major Universities and Navy’s around the world have been working on this.
The Australian Navy has a device thate was killed by their Divers use to keep the big toothy ones at bay. An Australian University has had sucess with Bold Black and white Graphics on wetsuits and boards. Rare earth magnets might attract more sharks then repeal them.
There was an inside in the waters off the Farllon Islands out side of San Francisco. A Great White Shark was killed by a Killer Whale. It was witnessed by Group ona Whale watching excursion lea by a marine biologist.
There was also a group of Shark Researchers close by. The Islands are a known gathering place and breading grounds for Great Whites. On the days just after this attack the Scintist could not find one Great White. They theorized that the Shark Released a chemical hormone into the water that alerted the other sharks of Danger. Biologist located this hormon and were able to replicate it in the lab. Then started to do experiments with it. I have seen some of those test on video. It’s pretty impressive to see sharks not just avoid the target but swim away as fast as they can. This subset fascinates me. Florida is the Shark bite capital of the world. New Smyrna Beach I’d ground zero for shark bites. I have seen Drone videos of sharks swimming below Surfers . Lots of Bull Sharks. If a safe product could be found to keep those sharks from investigating you as a possible food source. It would be a big benefit to Surfers or anyone else that spends a great deal of time in the Ocean.
I disagree Surffoils. Sharks (White sharks at least) have been shown to be very discerning regarding food.
I was going to mention that too artz.
They even had a bunch of tagged sharks that split iirc.
Maybe we need to synthesize Orca urine and bathe in that before surfing?
Artz I saw that farallon episode on tv those great whites vacated pronto after that orca attack. That is why I mentioned doing an orca pattern on board perhaps though it is more of a chemical reaction than a reaction to the black and white marking of the orca. In any case, that place was barren of sharks for a while after that event…
I think it was something in the shark liver that the other sharks could smell.
I’m not to sure about markings, but colors may help. I try to use color combinations that are usually found on poisonous fish. Bright, unusual colors like yellow, orange, lime green, bright blue. I think there may be something to the devices that emit an electrical signal.
If you think about how a shark sees a human, we do look like turtles or seals. I once thought about emulating the underside of an Orca, but I’d look like a baby Orca without a pod for protection.
Yeah looking like a baby Orca might not be the best idea.