Wetsuit color concerns while shark diving?

[SeaHound]

Any colors we should avoid wearing while diving with sharks? red or white etc?

 

[Mike Veitch]

A friend of mine who is a big shark photographer specifically wears a bright yellow suit as it is supposed to attract sharks...

 

[Diver0001]

Any colors we should avoid wearing while diving with sharks? red or white etc?

Years ago I saw a documentary about that that Cousteau did. The excercise wasn't really scientific but there seems to be some evidence to suggest that the more you look like a pilot fish the less interest sharks seem to show.

In any case the chances of you having an undesireable encounter with a shark is so small that it's not worth your energy to worry about it.

R..

 

[SeaHound]

In any case the chances of you having an undesireable encounter with a shark is so small that it's not worth your energy to worry about it.

R..

Really? You mean I can wear a bright red wetsuit and dive with sharks and the mathematica probability of them attacking me would be the same as them attacking my freind in all black? Is it not true that shark diving charters tell their divers not to wear white for some reason? Just heard that somewhere.

 

[drbill]

I would assume that a red wetsuit would look similar to a black one at any significant depth (depending on the shark's ability to discriminate color). And I would assume a dark wetsuit in certain regions might make you look a little like a marine mammal. That might be an issue only if the species of sharks encountered on your dive prefer "red" meat. A light colored wetsuit might make you look like a large (and potentially tasty) fish to a fish eater.

Back in the mid-80's Cousteau teams were diving with silver wetsuits. They looked awesome and assisted divers in maintaining contact with the rest of the team underwater (as did the communications system in the full face masks).

Dr. Bill

 

[Mako Mark]

A friend of mine who is a big shark photographer specifically wears a bright yellow suit as it is supposed to attract sharks...

Yeah, its called "yum yum yellow"

Back in the mid-80's Cousteau teams were diving with silver wetsuits. They looked awesome and assisted divers in maintaining contact with the rest of the team underwater (as did the communications system in the full face masks).

Dr. Bill

I went on the Alcyone, Calypsos sailing vessel when I lived in Fiji and saw all that stuff. While it looked good on film, it was just cheap plastic boxes that had beat up 20 year old cylinders with j valves on, underneath. His gear was trash really. I was dissalusioned.