Australian surfers advised to wear kevlar wetsuits after dramatic spike in Great White shark attacks

“A lot of the teeth on Great White sharks…have these really sharp, pointed edges and serrated edges.”

University researchers have found that if surfers were more inclined to wear shark-bite resistant wetsuits the severity of their injuries from Great White shark and Tiger shark attacks might be lessened.

In the wake of the recent death of popular Sydney surfer, Mercury Psillakis and a radical increase in Great White attacks on surfers over the past two decades, researchers from Flinders Uni and the New South Wales primary industries department tested four “bite-proof” wetsuits made from Kevlar and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene.

The results, which you can read here, were relatively encouraging, I suppose.

All bite-resistant materials reduced the proportional area of bites in substantial and critical damage categories, the categories associated with haemorrhaging and major vascular injury. However, there were limited to no differences in substantial and critical damage categories across the bite-resistant materials. Shark length also influenced the proportion of damage from tiger shark bites, but not from white shark bites.

A caveat.

Internal and crushing injuries might still occur.

Great White shark trials took place in South Australia’s Neptune Islands and Tigers got tested around Norfolk Island, 1700 clicks northeast of Sydney.

Effectiveness of bite-resistant materials to reduce injuries from white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) and tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) bites

Once a shark attempted to consume the tethered bait, the bait was removed from the water, and we deployed a ‘bite package’ ~10 m behind the vessel. Bite packages were a wooden board (650- × 325- × 8-mm marine plywood), a sheet of ethylene and vinyl acetate (EVA) foam on either side of the wooden board, and a neoprene or bite-resistant pouch placed over the foam and wooden panel (Fig. 1). Polypropylene rope (9-mm diameter) covered with thick plastic hose was passed through two-holes near the top of the bite package to attach it to the research vessel and facilitate recovery following bites. During each bite, tension was maintained on the rope to ensure resistance and ensure prompt recovery once the board was released to avoid repeated bites from different sharks. Each bite was assigned an intensity category by using a scale of 1 (mild; one bite and quick release), 2 (moderate; one to two bites with some shaking of head) and 3 (severe; multiple bites including head shakes or dragging equipment below the surface). We deployed each bite package with one of the four bite-resistant materials or standard neoprene (control) pouches, with the order being block-randomised.

The researchers also helpfully pointed out, “

A lot of the teeth on white sharks and tiger sharks … have these really sharp, pointed edges and serrated edges, and that’s where a lot of the damage from bites occurs,”

Good timing on the tests. Since Great White sharks were listed as vulnerable in 1999 and afforded government protection, there has been a 773% increase in Great White attacks on surfers.

RIP, Zac, Paul Tadashi, Rob, Mani, Mark, Tim, Simon, Nick, Cameron, Jevon, Paul, Nick, Jarrod, Peter, Sam, Simon, Tod, Khai, Lance, Ken, Bradley, Geoffrey, Brian, Nicholas, Kyle, Bryn, George, Peter, Ben, Chris, Jay, Ben, Doreen, Laeticia, Gary, Andrew, Paul, Steven and, now, Mercury.