Engineering Maze

Invisible wetsuit protect against sharks

Australian scientists have developed a pair of anti-shark wet-suit that make divers appear invisible by camouflaging their bodies in the sea and trick sharks into thinking surfers are poisonous.

A team of researchers from the University of Western Australia joined forces with designers from  Shark Attack Mitigation Systems (SAMS) to create the suits.

The blue pattern of the Elude suit can't be seen by the shark because the fish are color blind.

While the stripes on the Diverter suit mimic the colours of poisonous fish to warn the sharks off. While sharks are known to have a keen sense of smell, scientists believe that they rely heavily on their vision in the final - often deadly - phase of a shark attack.

The pattern uses disruptive coloration and shaping, which is difficult for a shark to see and also blends in with background colors.
The team undertook extensive research to examine how sharks see and hunt underwater.



Professor Shaun Collin and Professor Nathan Hart from the university used molecular biology techniques to study the genes responsible for coding the retinal visual pigments found in the eyes of selected species of large sharks.

They wanted to isolate the effect that certain colors and shapes have on sharks' sensory systems as well as if certain combinations were particularly conspicuous or unrecognizable to the underwater predators.


They modeled various underwater light fields to determine the spatial resolving power, spectral sensitivity and light gathering ability of the shark visual system by using specialist research software.

Their findings led to the development of a patterned surface that seems either unrecognizable or dangerous to sharks - which is a lot more useful that the reluctance of a traditional wet-suit.

Aim:

The Elude suit's blue pattern can't be seen by the shark because the fish are color blind.

The pattern uses disruptive coloration and shaping, which is difficult for a shark to see and also blends in with background colors.

The stripes on the Diverted suit mimic the colors of poisonous fish to warn the sharks off.

According to SAMS, years of anecdotal evidence suggests that a stripe pattern acts as a deterrent or repellent to sharks.

The scientists found that very specific contrasting colours, shapes and dimensions work together for maximum effect