Company Develops Shark-Repelling Bracelet

[greenturtle]

Wonder if this works for divers? If anyone has scientific information on this, please share. Thanks.


Anklet Debuts At Cocoa Beach Surf Expo

POSTED: Sunday, April 18, 2010

http://www.clickorlando.com/technology/23188172/detail.html#

COCOA, Fla. -- A company over the weekend introduced its new shark bite repellent anklet at the Boards and Waves Expo in Cocoa Beach.

The anklet, made by Repel Sharks, LLC, is made of a series of magnets and attractive beads that fits like a piece of jewelry, but repels sharks.

"The magnets interfere with the shark's sensory abilities," said Bob Millings of Repel Sharks. "The shark's electrosense, located in its nose, detects the electrical currents produced by the magnetic fields, creating a repellent response."

The anklet was designed for situations when low visibility and high surf combine, an environment in which sharks have a tendency to bite.

In many shark attacks, particularly on the East Coast of the U.S., the shark will take what scientists call an "investigatory bite."

In field tests, the magnetic anklet caused curious sharks to turn away quickly after coming into contact with the electromagnetic field radiating from the anklet.

New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County is considered the shark bite capital of the world.

http://www.clickorlando.com/2010/0418/23188051_360X480.jpg

[acelockco]

Yea, right. I bet those magnets will mess with a shark.....after it eats them along with your let....LMAO.

I can imagine it now.....

DonA....DonA....DonA..DonnnnnnAAAAAAA...DonnnnnnnA AAAAAAAAA....Oh wait, magnets...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!



Kind of like Superman and Kryptonite.

[The Publisher]

The ampullae of lorenzini are the electromagnetic sensing organs of sharks, and it is well know how they are extremely sensitive to such, and controlled studies have been shown that generated electromagnetic fields can repel sharks at times, but I am a bit skeptical about using small magnets.

I would be pleased to be wrong and have this work though!

[acelockco]

I understand how the ampullae of lorenzini works, but I think this thing is a joke.

Just because we know that the ampullae of lorenzini are sensitive to electrical energy or magnetic energy, doesn't mean in any way that having magnets around is going to make them not bite you. On top of that, these little magnets are surely not powerful enough to do anything.

The bottom line is that this is not a scientifically proven method to prevent shark attacks. The company knows this, but is praying on people because they know people are immensely afraid of sharks, even though the real danger is quite minuscule. The game is to sell these things to people that wouldn't have a problem with sharks anyway. They don't have a problem, so they believe the device is working. If the situation does arise where someone wearing the device does get bit, they just claim it doesn't work 100% of the time.

If someone buys this BS, they are wasting their money. I have the real shark repelling gear, if you want I can sell you what I have. It is guaranteed to work 99% of the time!!! It is a bag of special dog poop, you wipe it all over your gear before your dive. It will keep the sharks away and all of your dive buddies.

[The Publisher]

http://www.qray.com/ProductImg/b392.jpg

But what about those awesome QRay ionized bracelets that golfers swear by that harness your chi and balance your yin and yang?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionized_bracelet

Greenturtle, Ace and I cannot control ourselves, we must poke fun at most of this stuff as it appears we are both congenital terminal skeptics, but then again people used to think the earth was flat and if someone hundreds of years ago said humans could fly they might have been burned to death for being a heretic, so in my best politician parsing, who knows.....

This still is a great topic for some spirited discussion, so thanks for adding it!

[The Publisher]

Another manufacturer:

http://www.thesharkstopper.com/images/Sharkstopper_PersonalSharkRepellant-foot242.jpg

From Mythbusters:
Magnets are effective for repelling sharks.

busted

"This myth is based on the fact that sharks have sensory organs called ampullae of Lorenzini, which are capable of detecting electro-magnetic fields. The Mythbusters tried several experiments to test the deterrent power of magnets. First they used a young, captive nurse shark. A handler immobilized the shark by turning it upside down. Jamie then brought a magnet near the shark, and it bent away from the magnet. When the shark was upright, it bent away strongly and tried to escape from the handler. The Mythbusters also used a sheet of plastic to hide the approaching magnet from the shark’s vision. In this condition, the shark tried to bite at the magnet through the opaque sheet when the magnet was brought near. Next, another nurse shark was used for a different test. The shark was in a small pen, and the a row of magnets was used to divide the pen in half. The shark would not swim over the magnets, but it would swim over a line of steel chunks used as a control. Finally, the Mythbusters covered fish-filled bait boxes with strong neodymium magnets and submerged them in waters infested with wild, adult lemon sharks. These sharks attacked the boxes aggressively regardless of whether there were magnets on them. This myth was declared “busted” because the magnets did not work for all species of sharks nor when there was food present."

Some various posts around the Internet on magnets as shark repellents:


Hooray for the news media giving free advertising to fraudsters.

It might actually work if you use big-ass rare earth magnets or an electromagnet so the shark could detect it more than six inches away, but those same magnets would make it quite tricky to stay on the surface for very long.

I'm guessing the feet that washed up BC were from the beta testers then?

Fortunately the bracelet is effective at repelling Nurse Sharks.Unfortunately the bracelet is effective at attracting Great White Sharks.

It’s only a matter of time before the product is recalled and they’re being sued by a bunch of angry (not to mention limbless) customers…

okay let’s just say this works and the sharks are repelled..the shiny glistening beading will surely attract barracuda…still want that cool embellishment?

At Least My Ankles Will Be Spared! Should have worn it on my friggin wrist!

Here is a rather well done article with citations:

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/shark-magnet.htm/printable


http://www.toplessrobot.com/sharkrepellent.jpg
I think Batman's shark repellent spray might work better.