Dunno but ive not been attacked by one and my wetsuit and drysuit are black.

Thought they hunted off smell anyway as they can only see shapes.

If a bright colour is safest then why do surfers have a high shark attack
ratio.  Ive seen very few (if any) black surf boards.
S'pose it also depends how deep you are as colours diminish the deeper you
go.

The perfest test would be to dive into shark infested waters with a wetsuit
made of half yellow and half black neoprene and see which limb you lost
first.

Thats my 2p worth

Alex

About a year ago, there was a chap who said he was doing a study and said he
would report his results back to the group in a few weeks, it has been quite
a while, he has not been heard from.....

Shark attacks on scuba divers are very, very rare in a world where shark
attacks on people are very rare.
Anything you hear will be of an anecdotal nature because nobody knows.

Sharks use a variety of ways to find and attack their prey including sight,
sound, smell and electrical currents.
The final attack many sharks make is probably based on locating the meal by
it's electrical signal.

This *may* be one of the reasons why we are not attacked much. With dive
gear on we frequently are a weak battery (two dissimilar metals in an acidic
solution) The idea is that we look a lot bigger than we are.
The trip to the water is far more likely to cause problems than a shark is.
So is the sea urchin you didn't see.

Stats related to this question can be found at the site below:
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/default.htm

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/scuba/clothes/clothes.htm

One of a few studies available.

Forest Aten

Someone never heard of "yumm yumm yellow," apparently.  

The worst color after black

and blue, and pink, and green.

(The most dangerous color is whatever is being worn by the newbie
diver in front of you)

In uk.rec.scuba boatlover <boatlover1971@yahoo.com.hk> wrote:

I have heard that contrasting colours are easiest for sharks to see so the
colour of the wet suit isn't too much of an issue as long as it doesn't
contrast with your other kit.

Probably the biggest factor with shark attach is where you are diving and
what sharks are around you. For example, if you are surface swimming
through the surf zone then a great white may mistake you for a seal but
in open water it is very unlikely to attack you are it can clearly see
that you aren't one. Likewise a grey reef shark is only likely to attack
you if you are in its territory, on your own and ignore its warning
display and a nurse shark is only likely to attack if you are silly
enough to kneel on it or attack it in some way.

To put shark attacks in perspective with a quick, silly statistic...
approximately 25 people are attacked globally every year but 250
are killed annually by falling coconuts. This makes the humble
coconut is 10 times more deadly than the average shark.

I wouldn't worry too much about your wetsuit's colour.... you are
probably more likely to kill yourself putting it on that it leading
to a shark attack :-)

Nick

Hi Casey, nice to meet you. Your question is one that comes up from
time to time. I've done a cut a paste of a previous thread with my
comments to another poster. Perhaps the sites posted there will help
you to understand more about what we know (fairly little) and what we
don't know to explain shark behavior.

Also, if helps any... my first wetsuit was entirely black since that
is pretty much all that was offered back then. My second wetsuit is
blue with bright yellow and aqua trim / stripes. My other wetsuit is
black and purple. I'm still here and haven't had to fend off any
aggressive sharks. <knocking on my wooden head>  :)
~B~

"Australian shark biologist Ian Gordon has been getting into the water
off Florida beaches and deliberately agitating bull sharks to observe
their reaction. He says his research so far suggests that underwater
geography and a sense of territory can provoke an attack."

http://www.time.com/time/pacific/magazine/20010730/cover2.html

"After a shark decides to attack, it "postures", swimming erratically
with elevated snout, arched back, pectoral fin depression, stiff
lateral bending of the body and rapid tail motion. In bursts of
motion, a shark can use its powerful caudal fin musculature and attain
speed in the water of up to 64 kilometers m per hour. As a shark
prepares to strike, it typically opens and closes its jaws (up to
three times each second), depresses the pectoral fins in a braking
action and elevates its head."
" It is very difficult to generalize about shark attacks on humans.
Current explanations favor aggression directed at the frightened
victim. Aggression may be aggravated by purely anomalous behavior,
violation of courtship patterns or territorial invasion."

http://www.istm.org/news_share/200203/shark.html

"Sharks may also attack from a territorial drive, with no intention to
feed. A characteristic swimming pattern called agonistic display
usually precedes attacks out of territoriality. The shark shakes its
head and swims erratically with a hunched back, pectoral fins pointing
down, and snout pointing up."

http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/sharks%26rays/behavior.html

"There may be a number of reasons why sharks attack humans in these
areas. Some attacks may be purely an inquisitive testing, some may be
territorial responses, some could be due to unintentional interference
by the victim in shark courtship activities, and some may be directly
associated with feeding behaviors."

http://www.mote.org/~rhueter/sharks/attacks.phtml

"Moore said sharks may develop territorial ties to these rigs, which
could pose conservation concerns in situations when platforms are
removed."

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/FISH/Sharks/InNews/OilRigs.htm

I said "marine life" in my previous post and was not speaking of just
sharks at this point. I wasn't clear apparently. However, IMHO, I
don't believe that sharks are 'friendly' when in the wild. There is no
sense in provoking them. I've seen divers approach resting nurse
sharks from the front and attempt to pet their head. This is simply
asking to get bit and this isn't even a behavior that many ppl would
try with a large dog they don't know.

It may depend on the area you are in. Some suggest that sharks will
always attempt to keep an area open to flee. If it feels there is no
exit near you, then it just might pass you up and continue  swimming
past you to seek out other 'food' instead.

Assuming that you even see it before it attacks.

In Palau a few years ago, I was wearing a grey and black skin in a group of
5 or 6 white tip reef sharks when a remora started "grooming" my face mask
and knocked it off. Made me plenty nervous - that remora resembled a
mini-shark at the time - but I believe he thought I was a shark...

Mickey
Fort Lauderdale, FL

I have seen barracuda attracted to my dive buddy's yellow camera, so
even if sharks confuse black and seals there are other things to worry
about.

"boatlover" ha scritto nel messaggio

Straight from It.hobby scuba:

--
"Dalle genti sei REJETTO,
di fratelli traditore!
il tuo nome d?sti orrore,
fia l'obbrobrio d'ogni et?!
"Oh fuggite il maledetto",
terra e cielo grider?!"
Nabucco - Parte Prima, Scena VII

I love to both deep sea fish here in Florida and suba dive.  I wear a black
3 mm full suit with lime green legs and arms.  During my safety stops I just
cannot get over the fact that I resemble one of the many lures or teasers I
use while fishing, only much larger.  My solution was to hook up with a dive
buddy that weights about a hundred pounds more than me......hope beeing that
he will look more attractive to the shark than my boney a.s.  That is unless
sharks do diet in which case that theory just went out the window.  All
kidding aside I must say that is an interesting question.

steve

Don't think so.  There is a warning put out by some dive shop employees,
tho, that divers who are not color-coordinated will be attacked by sharks.

Jeanne

New Zealand diver/explorer Wade Doak did some experimenting with
wetsuit colours. IIRC, he had a black one made with yellow bands to
imitate the yellow banded seasnake and this seemed to make sharks
wary, which is interesting because I'm not sure many NZ sharks would have
ever encountered a seasnake.

My idea of russian roulette would be to dive near a
seal colony on a known white pointer migration route.
We had a diver attacked by a white pointer down at Campbell
Island, a cold and remote place south of New Zealand.

Fwiw there is a product called the Seachange Shark Shield which you wear on
your leg. Apparently it creates a conductive field around the wearer
which irritates the shark's Ampullae of Lorenzini sensor. I read about it in the
latest Aquanaut Divers Guide. Have a look at
http://www.aquanaut.com.au

cheers
Brian