On a recent full moon session during which I wore one of the heated wetsuit devices, I couldn't quite shake the idea that the electrical current heating the suit might be a shark attractant.
I remember hearing something about sharks having an extremely sensitive electricity detection organ in their snout.
Are there any marine biology people out there that could shed some light?
ampulei of lorenzini...
sorry if the spelling is off. they are those big "black heads" on the sharks snouts.
i'm definitly not a marine biologist but i'm addicted to shark week.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampullae_of_Lorenzini
sharks are amazing.
i have seen one of those heated vests and liked the idea.
i wondered about the shark thing too though.
Howzit John, I read somewhere's that a shark can sense the electrical current of a watch battery from miles away, now that is sensativity. Aloha,Kokua
Might even deter the sharks since it would “look” weird and unlike their normal prey. who knows…?
Seems like you could kill two birds with one stone if you could find a frequency that is irritating to the shark…wetsuit heater/shark repellent…
it is more likely to act as a shark repellent, because sharks normally detect very very small voltages, in the ranges of 5nV/cm which is tiny. The heaters would have bigger electrical fields and be unfamiliar to a shark.