______________________________________________________________________________
|  File Name      : SHARKRPL.ASC     |  Online Date     :  10/06/94          |
|  Contributed by : Jerry Decker     |  Dir Category    :  BIOLOGY           |
|  From           : KeelyNet BBS     |  DataLine        :  (214) 324-3501    |
|           KeelyNet * PO BOX 870716 * Mesquite, Texas * USA * 75187         |
|        A FREE Alternative Sciences BBS sponsored by Vanguard Sciences      |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
The following is a curious piece of information having commercial applications
for those who might wish to pursue it or 'other' ramifications of it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Science Digest - December 1982

"Soap" makes Sharks Flee

"Shark!"  The menacing fish closes in quickly.  Without a second to spare, the
swimmer rips a patch off his armband, resleasing a chemical into the water.
The shark immediately arches its body away from the swimmer and speeds off.

By the end of the decade, (this in 1982 and it's now 1994!) swimmers may
routinely carry shark-repelling chemicals in an armband or a squirt gun.  And
the chemicals will be no more exotic than the surfactants - largely wetting
and foaming agents - that all of us know as laundry detergents.

Leading the research are zoologist Eliahu Ziotkin, of the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem, and Samuel Gruber, of the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School
of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.  Ziotkin was studying pardaxin, a rare
shark repellent secreted by a Red Sea fish called the Moses sole, when he
noticed characteristics similar to those of surfactants.  Ziotkin wondered if
the plentiful agents would work as effectively.

When the researchers tested 16 surfactants on sharks at the University of
Miami, two of them were effective.  "They were better than the natural
compound," says Gruber.  The shark's response varied in accordance with the
amounts used.  "At high concentrations," he says, "they were WRITHING on the
bottom, crashing into walls and FLEEING."

Gruber and Ziotkin are trying to determine the proper dosage needed to repel a
shark.  The next step is to figure out which of the shark's organs reacts so
strongly against the chemicals.  But already, says Gruber, "we can take an
animal ready to feed and turn it into an animal ready to flee."  That sounds
just wonderful to most swimmers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------