Natures Shark Shield

Well....after doing some research, I've come to the conclusion, that if a Shark were to swim up and see this pattern, It would stop and give it a check bite(that's what I'm hoping for anyway) like Dan got.  It may keep a FULL-ON Aireal Launch from happening...or it could draw them to me?

Used spray paint for PLASTIC and then clear-coated it for added protection from chipping off.

....stand by for further results

Nice aposematic paint job Adam.  Hopefully the sharks will think you're just as poisonous as lionfish and sea snakes.

Or send them into a Seizure...

  Looks Kool....

last pic is the FINISHED(by me)PRODUCT.

all of Nature's most poisonous creatures have a striped or broken-up colors and bands....add this creature to that list.


Title:Techniques for repelling predatory animals by the use of aposematic patterns and coloration Document Type and Number:United States Patent 4494245
Abstract:A method for repelling predatory animals by the use of aposematic patterns and colorations is disclosed. A man (10) if isolated, alone, or injured in marine or ocean waters (24) is substantially at the mercy of numerous predatory organisms that live and thrive in the marine environment (24) such as for example a shark (26). There are however organisms or animals such as deadly Pelamis platurus sea snakes (28) which possess oposematic colorations such as bright yellow backgrounds (30) with black irregular spots (32). It has been found that sharks (26) typically have an innate avoidance response to these sea snakes. According to the method of this invention, therefore, the man or diver (10) protects himself from the predatory animal (26) by wearing a wetsuit (12) which mimics the sea snake (28) or some other aposematically colored organism. Thus, according to one embodiment the wetsuit (12) will be made of a bright yellow color background (34) having a multiplicity of black irregular spots (36), (38), and (40). In addition, bathing suits (50) and life preserver (52) may also be manufactured to mimic the coloration of other naturally distasteful or venomous animals. Also, hypothetical patterns which include the three basic aposematic colors red, black, and yellow may be applied to other diving and aqua marine equipment such as life raft (68) diving tank (76), foot flippers (70) and (72) and the like.

Fish Biologists please chime in.

Nice aposematic paint job Adam.  Hopefully the sharks will think you're just as poisonous as lionfish and sea snakes.

way to use the correct term Brian!.....am I nutz or what?...just looking for that second thought from the beast.

There's a company out there that sells stickers for surfboards and kayaks called shark camo.  http://www.sharkcamo.com/

Personally, I'm not convinced it will make much of a difference here on the West Coast of the US.  There is some science behind it.  Most black and white striped poisonous animals live in the Indo-Pacific near Australia and reef sharks in that area are known not to bother them.   In order for aposematic markings to work the predator species and poisonous species have to evolve in the same ecosystem. Over many generations, through natural selection, stripes develop as a warning on the part of the poisonous animals and predators that head the warnings live to pass on the stripe avoiding genes on.  There are some species that have evolved to fake the stripes and although they are not poisonous themselves they are thus protected from stripe avoiding predators.  However, we don't have striped aposematic species here and I'm pretty sure white sharks here probably don't have those stripe avoiding genes, so faking the stripes is not likely to make a difference.  In the meantime, it does look bad ass.

Brian

Yea I guess a 3000lb shark is afraid of a 1lb snake might scare off Mooch

thanks for the science Brian.....it makes good perfect sense.
theseSTRIPESareGONNAgetTHEMgenesPLANTED!  

$250...

Nice work, mADmAnM!  

It makes me want to do a tribal dance! Looks cool to me.

CHEERS!

“I applied the decal prior to surfing an extremely sharky secret break just
recently. After an hour or so of epic surf, in between breaks came a huge
white shark. It went under our boards and kept on going. Coincidence...I
think not!”
- Jason Fleisher - Plettsburg, South Africa



“My first experience with Sharkcamo was at a secret break on a morning in
Hawaii. A 10 or 12 foot tiger shark came through and cleaned us all out
except for one guy who stayed out. We stayed out of the water for an hour
while this guy caught all the waves. He finally got out and we all noticed
the decal on his board. We asked about it and told us how it works. I now
have Sharkcamo on all of my boards and sell them in my shop.”
- Jack Scott - Hilo, Hawaii, Owner of a surf shop


“We have sharks harass us all the time while surfing in Brasil. I have had
Sharkcamo on all of my boards for the past 3 years. Sharks have been no
problem since.”
- Gabriella Hoffman - Recife, Brasil


Sharkcamo was created based on the scientific fact  that Mother Nature protects certain species of animals with distinct coloration patterns. The technical name for this phenomenon is aposematic pattern coloration. Examples of coloration imitation on land  are the Monarch and Viceroy butterfly and coral and king snake.  Several species of fish share a distinct striped pattern and are not prey items for sharks. In the documentary "Smile of the Shark", shark experts proved Tiger sharks would not eat striped poles filled with fish. After viewing this film, the quest to find a graphic that could be applied to the bottom of surfboards began. The end result was the Zebra or fingerprint design. We found this graphic offers the best protection from different angles of attack. Sharkcamo has been used by thousands of surfers  worldwide for the past 7 years with impeccable results. Our graphic imitates the pattern Mother Nature has decorated certain fish with that are seen side by side with sharks in all water conditions and times of the day. Sharkcamo is a low tech approach to preventing shark attacks  on surfers. Taken from the principles of Mother Nature, Sharkcamo is a patented copyrighted graphic that applies to the bottom of your surf board and helps neutralize the prey reflex found in sharks that cause them to attack.

.....not just in the Indo-Pacific areas.      

I didn't a have good explanation like BSteves, but I was thinking the same thing since sea snakes aren't local.  On the other hand, if thoses stripes help break up the silhouette of your yak and make it less like local GWS prey, then it's an advantage.

Plus, your yak's unique looks should make less of a target for thieves.  Bottom line... I think it's cool and that's all that should matter.

Boat's looking sweet Adam. I like!

That looks cool as heck, Adam.

I don't know crap about the science behind shark behavior but anything that makes you look less like a sealion can only be a good thing, right?

Do sharks eat striped bass?