Personal Shark Repellant

Ahab writes "Now if only Robert Shaw had had one of these... Reuters is running this thinly-veiled press release about a personal anti-shark unit. The unit creates an electric field around the swimmer that only affects sharks. The smallest unit repels sharks at a distance of about 6 to 9 feet, and will retail for $240."

Comments

Battery life is shabby

[Anonymous Coward]

If you really want to repel sharks for an hour or so, eat before you swim.

Well, eat and then wait an hour before swimming. This method is guarateed to work 100% of the time.

Shark repellent... old

[Evro]

They've had shark repellent since 1966. Get with the times.

Re:Shark repellent... old

[leviramsey]

Did they have 404's in 1966, also?

Old news

[0xB]

This is so old!

Spasms

[billcopc]

An initial mild discomfort increases as the shark approaches the field until it causes intolerable muscle spasms.

I just hope those spasms aren't focused around the jaw area :) Uncontrollable chewing isn't my idea of protection.

Shark Suit, eh?

[gnovos]

Are these approved for use in courtrooms?

Re:Shark Suit, eh?

[chennes]

I doubt it - Microsoft owns part of this company (according to the article). They wouldn't want it to ward off their biggest supporters.

angry sharks

[ThunderCow]

"An initial mild discomfort increases as the shark approaches the field until it causes intolerable muscle spasms."
That sounds like it'll get the shark pretty angry at you. If the battery in that repellent runs out of juice, it's their turn for revenge. You'd better swim quickly..

Re:angry sharks

[Igmuth]

No actually it will just attack those swimming near you. Great way to sell these things, as soon as someone gets one the shark attacks increase due to pissed of sharks, hence more people buy... until everyone has they and there are crap load of annoyed sharks.

Then again the sharks might just leave the person alone and thats that.

The truth

[mar1no]

Aside from Batman and his "handy" sidekick Robin, they actually had this stuff quite a couple years ago. I recall watching something on the Discovery Channel and some divers were testing out share repellants and they were using some sort of "wand" that would release electrical waves? Or something, I'm not exactly a scientist on this matter so I may just be throwing out words that have no meaning.

But still...posting this story would be just as bad as if someone posted the story about the bear suit

Re:The truth

[Anonymous Coward]

The article mentions almost in the first paragraph that these suits have been around for a long time for abalone divers and shark hunters.

It's the "Personal" part that's interesting.

electric fence

[BigBir3d]

sounds like a mobile version of the electric fences for dogs.

old

[Cenam]

i saw this thing on the discover channel like 4 years ago, and thier always at least 2 years behind the news so think how far back you guys are:)

Originally Patented in South Aftrica in 1995

[EvilBastard]

This page from an abalone website has the NYT original article

I know they have been used a bit in Western Australia by professional abalone divers, and also in the Sydney Olympics in the harbor divers. Looks like they just made a nice small one for the consumer market

(Of course, it helps if we stop dressing up like their favorite food and doing seal impressions around them, but hey, it's never our fault, is it)

You can't go wrong by marketing to the paranoid

[looseBits]

Perhaps if I brain storm enough, I can come up with a personal anthrax sterilization system. Any ideas? I was thinking of taking a $15 smoke detector, breaking it open and placing the alpha-particle emmiter in a shoe box wrapped in aluminum foil and label it "Nuclear Mail Irradiator" and sell it for 4 easy payments of $79.95.

So just cos its on TV they report this ?

[Anon0mous]

So it was on TV for the last 2 days so /. reports it too ? man whats next ? "violence in middle east"

other sea mamals

[Anonymous Coward]

The specific frequency also increases the sexual urges of killer whales.

Down with this company!

[Jonny 290]

To hell with this company. I've been harassing them for TWO YEARS to get on their beta test list, and they kept ignoring me. :)

Re:Down with this company!

[Anonymous Coward]

1 tr1ed 4 da beta test 2
1t was^`t effect1ve
st111 g@t 1eft ar^^ a^d 5 d1g1ts 1eft

Batman

[Veramocor]

Anyone else think of the original batman series movie (where they fight all the villians at once) when batman says "Robin get the personal anti-shark repellant spray!"

or something like that.

$240.00??? try $2.40

[fist_187]

yes, $2.40. or less

i wish i remember which magazine had the article, but in south america, natives hung bunches of hot peppers over the sides of their boats to keep sharks away.

that's not superstition; the same sense of "smell" that lets sharks detect blood from miles is extremely sensitive to the hot sensation from peppers- and they hate it.

i guess if you have to jump in shark infested waters, grab the salsa if you have nothing else...

Sweet!

[oobeleck]

I'll have to get one of these for the next time I take out a loan....

Electric field?

[tunah]

The unit creates an electric field around the swimmer that only affects sharks.

Gee, I didn't know electromagnetism knew about sharks! Seriously, what do they mean?

Re:Electric field?

[eXtro]

Muscles emit weak electromagnetic fields. Sharks have evolved to have receptors which detect these weak electromagnetic fields. If you can swamp these fields than the shark can't detect prey, sort of the way DEET works against mosquitos I suppose. The DEET interferes with the mosquitos ability to sense CO2 (if I remember right) so they can hover around a potential feast but don't land.

It's not that the electromagnetic field only affects sharks, its more than sharks are among the few creatures that rely on electromagnetic fields as a means of locating prey.

Quick!

[Chelloveck]

Quick, Robin! The Bat-Shark-Repellent!

Re:Quick!

[DeadVulcan]

Quick, Robin! The Bat-Shark-Repellent!

Quick, Tuna! The Shark-Bat-Repellent!

(Batman and Sharkman flee each other with great speed, leaving Robin and Tuna to battle for good and evil.)

Uh, forgive my sudden bout of uncontrollable silliness.

Re:Quick!

[Chacham]

Yes, and it was funny too see the three repellants int he bat-coptor.

And the shark was pulling your leg..... Riddler!

What a superbly rediculous movie.