In some prime surfing spots women and men’s wetsuit wearers are at risk of suffering a shark attack, but researchers in Western Australia are planning on changing that.

Using a $20,000 grant they have received from the State Government, they are attempting to design a wetsuit which will make the wearer look less like food or something else worth investigating.

The current problem is that sharks approach surfers and other water-sports devotees because they think they are prey of some sort, such as a seal, or they are intrigued by them and unfortunately, having no hands at their disposal, examine them with their teeth.

So far, researchers have made a wetsuit which has light and dark patterns on it, with the aim to help the person wearing it blend into the surroundings and look much less interesting to any sharks in the area.

They’ve come up with the design by investigating what a shark is able to see in different lights and water depths, and, since sharks are colour blind, scientists have decided that by changing the patterns on wetsuits they can change how interesting a shark perceives the wearer to be.

A professor working on the project stated, “There might be striping or dots or some pattern that reduces the outline of the silhouette of the diver or swimmer, which would help them to merge into the background, so a shark would swim on, rather than identifying that as a potential food source.”

We’ll be interested to see the finished result and look forward to shark-repelling women and men’s wetsuits becoming available for purchase at some point in the near future.

Photo © leasqueaky via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence