Abstract
Increases in the number of shark bites, along with increased media attention on shark-human interactions has led to growing interest in preventing injuries from shark bites through the use of personal mitigation measures. The leading cause of fatality from shark bite victims is blood loss; thus reducing haemorrhaging may provide additional time for a shark bite victim to be attended to by emergency services. Despite previous shark-proof suits being bulky and cumbersome, new technological advances in fabric has allowed the development of lightweight alternatives that can be incorporated onto traditional wetsuits. The ability for these fabrics to withstand shark bites has not been scientifically tested. In this report, we compared two types of recently developed protective fabrics that incorporated ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibre onto neoprene (SharkStop and ActionTX) and compared them to standard neoprene alternatives. We tested nine different fabric variants using three different tests, laboratory-based puncture and laceration tests, along with field-based trials involving white sharks Carcharodon carcharias. Field-based trials consisted of measuring C. carcharias bite force and quantifying damages to the new fabrics following a bite from 3–4 m total length C. carcharias. We found that SharkStop and ActionTX fabric variants were more resistant to puncture, laceration, and bites from C. carcharias. More force was required to puncture the new fabrics compared to control fabrics (laboratory-based tests), and cuts made to the new fabrics were smaller and shallower than those on standard neoprene for both types of test, i.e. laboratory and field tests. Our results showed that UHMWPE fibre increased the resistance of neoprene to shark bites. Although the use of UHMWPE fibre (e.g. SharkStop and ActionTX) may therefore reduce blood loss resulting from a shark bite, research is needed to assess if the reduction in damages to the fabrics extends to human tissues and decreased injuries.
Highlights
The risk of being bitten by a shark is intrinsically low [1], the occurrence of shark bites has increased globally in the last 30 years [1,2,3,4]
Previous studies calculated bite force using different methods with Wroe, Huber (38) and Ferrara, Clausen (37) using Finite Element Analysis to produce 3D models constructed from a CT scan of a 2.5 m total length (TL) C. carcharias, and from a modelled relationship between size and bite force calculated from a range of chondrichthyan species
Using the two thirds power rule, [38] scaled the bite force values obtained from the 2.5 m specimen and calculated the theoretical maximum for a 6.4 m TL C. carcharias at 9320 N and 21367 N for the anterior and posterior bite respectively
Summary
The risk of being bitten by a shark is intrinsically low [1], the occurrence of shark bites has increased globally in the last 30 years [1,2,3,4]. Australia’s population has grown to over 25 million [7], with 85% of people living within 50 km of the coast [8] Alongside this human population increase, there has been an increase in water-based activities such as surfing, scuba-diving, snorkelling, swimming, and fishing, as well as easier access to remote locations [6]. Some of these activities are often considered to expose people to sharks, increasing shark bite risks [1]. Previous studies have suggested that surfing may increase risk due to surfers resembling sharks’ natural prey [11], the prevalence of bites on surfers might reflect their large amount of time spent in the water, be related to the time of day when most surfers are in the water (early morning and late evening), and the location of surf spots overlapping with shark space use
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