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

$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...

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.