Sharks and Periods.....

[Coogeeman]

Thanks for all the replies. Aquagirl I think sums up this thread nicely.

"Sharks are very likely to detect the menstruating blood, therefore they are very likely to notice you and they are likely to react (one way or another) to the smell."

I think that this is something that we have to be aware of and maybe its something that we should be telling students about when we are leading dives or taking classes. The last thing you want is an incident and then to be asked if you knew that it may or may not cause a problem.

I know that on this particular dive the shark did react to her and her alone and I didn't feel comfortable having her in the water at that time.

Coogeeman

 

[finstotheleft]

I've asked this question myself, and have always been told that it is not a problem. Maybe I was told that just to keep me from being nervous about it...but my common sense tells me that it could be a real possibility. It's like JBD mentioned chumming...isnt' that usually old fish blood that's sometimes even frozen, then thawed for use? It don't get much more dead than that...so why wouldn't they be attracted to menstrual blood?

I have pretty much decided not to dive if there is the possiblity of sharks around that time of the month. I'm usually tired, grouchy, clumsy and just generaly not myself anyway...