Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Bad Tasting Wetsuit

Helps to minimize damage from Shark Attacks
  (+14, -3)(+14, -3)
(+14, -3)
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Essentially, design a wet suit that tastes so bad to sharks, that when they bite it, they just spit it back out again.
Craenor, Sep 12 2008

Rodney Fox http://www.rodneyfo...iew&id=38&Itemid=51
How you look after the shark has had a taste [spidermother, Sep 15 2008]

Bethany Hamilton http://www.wetassch...BethanyHamilton.jpg
[normzone, Sep 15 2008]

[link]






       Cincinnati Chili should do the trick. ( I mean, cinnamon + meat + chocolate , come on...??)   

       Bun.
monojohnny, Sep 12 2008
  

       Once they bite it, aren't you going to have holes all through you?   

       (Maybe a bunch of streamers extending from the wetsuit so that sharks tend to bite those instead of you, first)
phundug, Sep 12 2008
  

       Perhaps a large "use by" date printed clearly on the suit.   

       The clever bit is that you print a date which has already expired (by at least three months, just to be sure).   

       Ha ha Fish! Humans win again. Stupid fish.
monojohnny, Sep 12 2008
  

       try human male sweat or worse, human male socks - that should work at 25 feet or more
po, Sep 12 2008
  

       There are two types of divers - those that pee in their wetsuits, and those that lie about it.   

       It doesn't seem to dissuade the sharks any. Maybe they like the flavor of pissy neoprene.   

       I've talked to a guy who's tasted seal - he couldn't bring himself to describe the flavor, just made faces, noises, and shuddered. And to a shark, seals are candy.   

       Unfortunately, what tastes bad to a shark is people. We are like fat-free potato chips to them. They also don't like surfboards.   

       Of course, they have to take a taste to be sure.   

       I'm not sure what this would have to taste like in order to be effective.
normzone, Sep 12 2008
  

       Surely, the simpler solution is to develop a fish-flavoured dive suit for your divebuddy to wear?
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 12 2008
  

       [UB] has put his finger on it. The fact that we are not as tasty as the seal that they are expecting is small consolation to the fact that the small "Taster" that the sharks enjoy is usually sufficient to render the human severley fucked and bent!.
gnomethang, Sep 13 2008
  

       ...but on the other hand, maybe there is something that tastes bad to sharks, we just might not know what it is yet...so I'll throw in a yucky tasting bun +
xandram, Sep 13 2008
  

       //when they bite it, they just spit it back out//
As mentioned, all humans already wear this wetsuit.
Amos Kito, Sep 13 2008
  

       Not a good idea - by the time the shark's realised you taste bad, it's too late.
hippo, Sep 13 2008
  

       I dunno, this works for many critters that can't defend themselves. They either taste like crap or are poisonous and brightly marked. (+)   

       Perhaps if every diver or submersible was similarly colored, (at least above certain depths) and tasted awful, ocean predators would just leave us alone after a while.   

       Aha, a water-tight double-layered suit with thinly sandwiched fast-dispersing awful-tasting bubbly explosive reactants to salt water, bursting only outward through the puncture hole in the outer layer?
rotary, Sep 14 2008
  

       Guys, ahhh stupid question, but how are we gonna ever know what tastes bad to a shark?
williamsmatt, Sep 15 2008
  

       Should be pretty easy to test on aquarium sharks.   

       // 20,000 years or so oughta do it.//
Sooner begun, sooner done.
  

       A journey of a thousand bites begins with one nibble.   

       Or, "How do you eat a beautiful surfer girl?"   

       Answer: "One bite at a time". (link)
normzone, Sep 15 2008
  

       Marmite.
coprocephalous, Sep 15 2008
  

       [+] funny and perfectly hafbaked.
blissmiss, Sep 15 2008
  

       I wonder if you could find a fish with coloring/scent that sharks already avoid, and pattern wetsuits after that. I have my doubts, because my understanding is that sharks take a bite out of everything on occasion, but it would be interesting to pursue.
MechE, Sep 15 2008
  

       if given enough exposure animals will learn that the new cue means "food inside" much as pacific sharks acclimated to, then became attracted by, navy shark repellant. I suspect that avoiding strong curiosity inspiring smells and patterns would be best. Adding a deceptive EM signal might work disturbing some sharks at close range. A few watts of extra EMR would really throw many creatures that use it for hunting.
WcW, Sep 15 2008
  

       // Adding a deceptive EM signal...//
The opposite surely, you'd want to faraday-cage a wetsuit to keep the body from emitting EM.
FlyingToaster, Sep 15 2008
  
      
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