What a great research project. Lets hope their research gets validated and deterring sharks is as easy as they are hypothesising. Coming from a science background myself I applaud breakthrough's of this nature. It certainly makes sense that based on visual cues a predator will or will not consider something to be a food source. Black neoprene for example is the same colour as seal fur.....hmmmmm....question is different sharks have different food sources so how applicable is it to all shark species.
Apparently not recommended for use off the African coast due to the propability of being attacked by lions mistaking you for a zebra,
Select to expand quotecauncy said..
Apparently not recommended for use off the African coast due to the propability of being attacked by lions mistaking you for a zebra,
And also look out in northern waters for sea snakes trying to shag you
I am led to beleive from reading about and seeing documentaries on sharks,that ...1:sharks have poor vision...2:sharks have exceptional smell..3:most attacks on humans are mistakes.Many victims aren't wearing wetsuits.
Thanks for your educated opinion there Toerag, obviously that hour you spent watching that shark doco wasn't time wasted.
However those of us on "The shark coast" think any time spent on making us less likely to be accidentally nibbled by one of those mindless feeding machines is actually worth it! I've spent too many nervous minutes body dragging back to my board and my even consider buying one of those clown suits just so I can feel a bit more relaxed out there, especially when trying new stupid tricks that I know I'm not going to land.
Dont want be just another forum knocker but arent we warned that most attacks are reported in murky water ???
I reckon the jury is well & truly still out on this one.
I have been thinking - since the attack rate has risen - more along the lines of an odour producing repellant.
Wonder if the govt. would flick me $20k to swim around Rotto testing ginger essence; brussel sprout linament and fishermans friend lotion ???
I think the blue and white one looks kinda cool...Not sure how it will look with my boardies over the top! 
Posted this earlier today on kiteforum.com; there is a thread running there if you're interested.....
This striped suit idea has been around for a while
check out Dr Walt Starck's ideas.....http://www.goldendolphin.com/WASdisk/dr ... etsuit.htm
Interesting guy, inventor of the Electrolung and came down under to New Zealand with his fabulous dive boat El Torito ....complete with 2 man wet sub......
Select to expand quotepuppetonastring said..
Dont want be just another forum knocker but arent we warned that most attacks are reported in murky water ???
I reckon the jury is well & truly still out on this one.
I have been thinking - since the attack rate has risen - more along the lines of an odour producing repellant.
Wonder if the govt. would flick me $20k to swim around Rotto testing ginger essence; brussel sprout linament and fishermans friend lotion ???
"Odour producing repellant" - see a 5m GWS in the water - turd in shorts/steamer 
= "odour producing repellant" - surely that's not worth $20K?
BRINM, LINK NOT WORKING
This isn't new. I've seen this on a tv show before, the theory behind it was that the black and white stripes was similar to the striping of a sucker fish that attach themselves to the shark and do whatever they do, the sharks don't eat them because they are useful to them. Also seen on myth busters (I think) where they experimented with different noises under water and found that sharks were deterred by the sound of a plastic drink bottle being crushed, often give the mono sail a good shake when in the water longer than usual water starting.
off topic
And then there's the doco where they built a hydraulic shark jaw and kept winding up the pressure until it took a clean bite out of a leg of pork, what a crock of sh!t that was, didn't take into account the threshing affect of the shark, far removed from the Rodney Fox doco where they wore mesh sleeves and enticed , ok only small sharks to take fish by biting there arms and came to the conclusion that the jaw pressure of a shark is not where the damage is done.
hopefully this
www.goldendolphin.com/WASdisk/driftlin/snksuit/wetsuit.htm
seems SB truncates the long address; lots of other good stuff at starcks www.goldendolphin.com
The stripes of the bars on this cage didn't seem to stop it.
No one was hurt. Both divers bailed out a trap door in cage, as did the shark. The diver that was flattened and standing on the shark, had another brush his legs as he was pulled to safety. They both went on the trip to get some good photos!
