Flightline recently posted a list of tips for avoiding shark attacks. It’s mostly common sense, but there are a few points I’m not sure I agree with. I’ll go over them one by one:

• Swim in a group. The article claims sharks are less likely to attack a group of divers. This white shark research page claims that sharks target lone or small groups of seals, where “small” is defined is 6 or fewer. How often are divers in a group larger than 6? Besides specially trained divers, you should never be diving alone anyway.
• Do not go in the water if you are bleeding. I agree here. The article even points out that there is no research that indicates menstruating women are in additional danger, although there is probably too little data to conclude anything.
• Do not wear shiny jewelry. I’ve heard this advice often for barracuda, but never for sharks. For one, I don’t think big sharks eat small fish. Second, sharks that are attracted to small fish would quickly realize you are not an easily killed prey and leave you alone.
• If you see a shark, stay calm, stay quiet, and stay where you are. I hope everyone knows not to draw attention to yourself if approached by a shark large enough to view you as prey.

What do you think? Am I off the mark on any of these points? Let everyone know in the comments below.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 11th, 2010 at 12:31 pm and is filed under Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.