NASA engineer debunks shark myths with groundbreaking sea experiment
Former NASA engineer Mark Rober decided to explore the stereotype about sharks that fans of the children's cartoon Finding Nemo are familiar with. He released blood into the sea to check if sharks could sense it from a distance of about 1.6 kilometres.
The scene from the famed children's cartoon "Finding Nemo," where Bruce, the great white shark, loses control upon smelling a drop of Dory's blood, has intrigued not just cartoon fans for years.
In reality, to determine if sharks can detect the scent of blood in the water, former NASA engineer turned YouTuber Mark Rober embarked on a quest for answers.
The 44-year-old travelled to a shark-infested area nearly 29 kilometres off the Bahamas coast to experiment with marine biologist and shark diving expert Luke Tipple.
He assured fans that he had devised a "solid testing procedure" and created "NASA-grade equipment" to dispel the long-standing stereotype that sharks enter a frenzy as soon as they detect the smell of human blood.
He explained regarding his experiment that his intention was to discover how far they could sense a single drop of blood in water, but first, he wanted to prove that they indeed prefer blood over any other scent.
He set up four surfboards, each releasing about 7.5 litres of different fluids: fish oil, cow blood, seawater, and urine. These fluids were released into the ocean over an hour, and Mark and Luke observed from their boat, noting how many sharks approached each board.
Four sharks were attracted to the fish oil; none showed interest in the urine, but the board with cow blood attracted as many as 41 sharks. Although difficult to categorise as a scientific study, it conclusively showed that, among all scents tested, blood was the most appealing to sharks. This invalidates the myth amongst surfers about urine attracting sharks.
In the next phase of the experiment, the YouTuber tested the sharks' interest in surfboards leaking human blood. On one board, a device was set to release one drop of blood per minute, and on another, one drop every four seconds. Over an hour, no shark showed interest in either board.
The engineer concluded that while this wasn't a flawless experiment, it's fair to say that since no shark was drawn to the board dispensing 15 drops of human blood per minute amidst waters filled with sharks, scratches are likely not a concern.
