Natures Shark Shield

Do sharks eat striped bass?

  .... ....

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

I can't believe I'm gonna try and take on the fish nerd but here goes. GWS are known to travel great lengths. Even all the way to Hawaii and further. By that reasoning the GWS may come by those species and have some experience with them. Now they may be surprised to see a striped animal in cold NorCal but it could have an effect. Then again, how much can you see from directly below anyway? The pic attached is with water with insane viz.

Z

Not knocking your work at all FH. No matter if it's supposed to work or not, it's probably better to try it out since going w/o has proven to prevoke GWS. Plus it looks BADASS!!

Plus it looks BADASS!!

that's all i wanted.....Then when they pull the mangeled plastic remainants from the water, they'll say," It sure looked "BAD ASS COOL"   

ongoing test are being produced, along with compiling data.....stand by.

Then again, how much can you see from directly below anyway? The pic attached is with water with insane viz.

Z

Not knocking your work at all FH. No matter if it's supposed to work or not, it's probably better to try it out since going w/o has proven to prevoke GWS. Plus it looks BADASS!!

The yum-yum yellows are darn near transparent. I've got stuff in the hull and you can see it from the outside.....next time one of the MFDT(mexican free dive team) members are around, i'll get some "from below" shots to see just what it looks like from down there.

... 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.

Just to echo the thoughts of others,  It does look cool, and it might just make a difference, on the theft deterrent, as well as the yum yum list.

Echo, echo...look's BITCHIN'...echo...

 

This is one of my summer projects for the bottom of my yum-yum yellow Outback...anything to make it look less like a big penguin. 

It makes me want to do a tribal dance!

  Whoa, now there's a mental image!

If it doesn't work, at least you're going down in style.

or maybe the sharks will look up and say, "what the hell is that?" Come up for a closer look.   

In the meantime, it does look bad ass.

    Nice work!  Looks awesome!

on the otherhand - If they do eat stripers, you're screwed...   

BST - Adam! that paint work does look badass! Great concept.

The point that Brian brought up is valid as there aren't any fish or snakes on this side of the ocean that have those markings - according to the June 2008 Smithsonian magazine article "The Brains behind The Jaws" = http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/great-white-sharks.html the GWS from Australian and African seas don't mingle with "ours" so to speak that they have documented. However, if genetically they possess or sometime in the past before the "tribes" separated to distant oceans have had an aversion to such creatures, it could well carry over - I don't know, Brian does that make sense?

What about an Orca pattern?

John

I hope sharks don't have a taste for zebras! 

Adam, Last year at Lake Mendocino I met a SIS kayaker who was testing his brand new fiberglass kayak that he had purchased with that same pattern.....Pretty Cool.  I was thinking of painting a GWS on the bottom of mine to keep the seals away. 

I hope sharks don't have a taste for zebras! 

That was my first thought too.

-Allen

nice work FH. I wonder how long before folks are tattooing their bodies with these markings. Im looking forward to the wetsuits designs that will result from this as well.