Peeing in my wetsuit attracts shark ?

[BigBothersom]

Have you tried that theory around a Great White shark yet, the only routine mammal eating shark

I've yet to dive around great whites, but I will, and when I do I expect it will be in South Africa or Guadeloupe and that being the case I wont be wearing swim shorts and a dive skin, so peeing wont be an issue. Again, I've dived in waters where I have been literally surrounded by more sharks than I could count in Palau, and while video taping them within a few feet of me they never showed the least bit of interest in my meat or my urine.

 

[TechBlue]

Have you tried that theory around a Great White shark yet, the only routine mammal eating shark

I too believe my pee-valve in my drysuit is awesome! What better way to hopefully one day catch a glimpse of a Great White shark.

Seals not humans, why would urine attract shark?

 

[Peter_C]

I've yet to dive around great whites

Then your theory doesn't count until you do so around Great Whites. Please let us know how it goes when you do get to dive with them

Seals not humans, why would urine attract shark?

I am only so curious to know why sharks are attracted to urine, but the logical answer would be because they are hungry and it leads them to food. Feel free to research it and get back to us.


I will repost two of my previous links for those that quickly passed over them and ignored them without comment. Find something in writing proving them wrong or at least come up with something that scientifically shows that they are wrong :cool2:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"sharks have an acute sense of smell and are attracted to blood and urine"[/FONT]
Facts (not spin) on Hawaii's Sharks

"3) Do not urinate in water while swimming or surfing. Recent studies show that great
white sharks in particular are attracted to the scent of urine. It is believed that homing in
on the scent of mammalian urine is one way they track down sea mammals."
Shark attack facts

 

[idocsteve]

6 pages about pissing in the water.

Folks the average dive is a half hour to 45 minutes. If you've got such poor bladder control that you just have to let go in your wetsuit maybe there are bigger issues here.

Maybe we should start a thread about whether or not it's ok to take a dump in the back of a city bus as long as you clean up after yourself.

 

[TechBlue]

Then your theory doesn't count until you do so around Great Whites. Please let us know how it goes when you do get to dive with them

I am only so curious to know why sharks are attracted to urine, but the logical answer would be because they are hungry and it leads them to food. Feel free to research it and get back to us.


I will repost two of my previous links for those that quickly passed over them and ignored them without comment. Find something in writing proving them wrong or at least come up with something that scientifically shows that they are wrong :cool2:

Your links are pretty generic so I would not constitute them as "fact" I have dived with Great Whites in SA and did urinate through my pee valve and also while wearing a wetsuit. Human blood does not attract sharks the reference to menstrual cycles is inaccurate.

I will qualify all statements by also adding that the shark is such a perfect design that they have barely changed through more than 8 million years of evolution. If we continue to overfish the waters they will find an alternate source of prey, this has been evidenced in certain areas of Australia where Great Whites have actually started hunting together and have taken double strikes on surfers, it shouldn't take too long before they figure out divers are easy meat.

 

[Peter_C]

Folks the average dive is a half hour to 45 minutes. If you've got such poor bladder control that you just have to let go in your wetsuit maybe there are bigger issues here.

Our average dives are all close to or over an hour, with some being almost two hours. We also dive drysuits locally and will often get hot suiting up so water intake is very important. Therefore peeing while diving is a requirement. Personally I do not pee in my wetsuit. Yuck!

Your links are pretty generic so I would not constitute them as "fact" I have dived with Great Whites in SA and did urinate through my pee valve and also while wearing a wetsuit. Human blood does not attract sharks the reference to menstrual cycles is inaccurate.

For clarification I never said they were facts. Just information. Seems that there isn't anything disputing it though, other than hearsay.

I will qualify all statements by also adding that the shark is such a perfect design that they have barely changed through more than 8 million years of evolution. If we continue to overfish the waters they will find an alternate source of prey, this has been evidenced in certain areas of Australia where Great Whites have actually started hunting together and have taken double strikes on surfers, it shouldn't take too long before they figure out divers are easy meat.

As long as shark finning continues that won't be a problem :depressed: The Great Whites are starting to make a come back, and you are correct, at some point since we decimated our local salmon runs, and now the sea lions are following fish out of the area, we may start seeing a change in their habits. Plus there are more people venturing into their territory.

 

[TechBlue]

Our average dives are all close to or over an hour, with some being almost two hours. We also dive drysuits locally and will often get hot suiting up so water intake is very important. Therefore peeing while diving is a requirement. Personally I do not pee in my wetsuit. Yuck!

For clarification I never said they were facts. Just information. Seems that there isn't anything disputing it though, other than hearsay.


As long as shark finning continues that won't be a problem :depressed: The Great Whites are starting to make a come back, and you are correct, at some point since we decimated our local salmon runs, and now the sea lions are following fish out of the area, we may start seeing a change in their habits. Plus there are more people venturing into their territory.

Pete,

I can only stand by my own personal experience, I never thought twice about peeing I have dived a lot with sharks of may species and intend to continue doing so.

They are beautiful creatures and perfect at what they do, the truth of the matter is that we are guests in their world and when they choose to change the relationship there is little that we can do.

I only hope that they do not get persecuting for doing what comes naturally to them

 

[BigBothersom]

Then your theory doesn't count until you do so around Great Whites. Please let us know how it goes when you do get to dive with them

Hmmm, you're not the tallest tree in the forest, but you're certainly the thickest. I have many roles to play in this life, but spending my time proving to you that sharks crave human piss isn't one of them. I don't have a theory. I simply don't believe your nonsense. And this isn't a research facility. Its a internet forum. My 'opinion' is based on my experience diving around thousands of sharks over the years. I didn't see any great whites, but that doesn't mean they didn't see me. All I know is I have never been bitten by a shark. You seem to think you're an intelligent fellow interested in proving and disproving theories based on one single species of shark. So why don't YOU go dive cageless around some great whites, make sure you don't pee, and then come back and you tell ME if you were bitten or not.

Meanwhile, stick to basing your nonsensical theories on low budget direct to DVD Movies about sharks who notice a woman on the beach is having her period so they swim 2,000 miles and eat all the swimmers in one big gulp, especially the ones who are peeing.

 

[Peter_C]

Sensitive are we? You must have missed the smiley at the end of my post that you quoted.

I dive in the red triangle for 95% of my dives and pee on about 70% of them. Never seen a Great White myself *shrugs*. They have seen me... I dove Saturday right where Marco Flagg was attacked underwater, while scuba diving.

There is more evidence on the internet that shows urine attracts sharks than evidence disproving it. I would love (Really I would) to see facts on the matter myself. No one can come up with anything though.

 

[smellzlikefish]

This is certainly not the first time someone has thought of urine as an attractant, but I did a quick primary literature search and it seems that science doesn't take the theory serious enough to try it, either. With the shark finning industry, shark diving industry, and scientists all looking for ways to attract sharks, somebody would have thought of it and tried it.

One final note before I go back to reality, urine is a chemical that can be used to track down an organism, but too much will kill a shark. Some species are very sensitive to ammonia and go belly up fairly quickly in an aquarium with any traceable amounts. Aquariums tend to accumulate pollutants such as ammonia faster than the ocean but that said, some sharks are more sensitive than other aquarium fish. So a little bit MIGHT point them at living organisms, but there is certainly a concentration at which urine is lethal.