He should have used the brand Batman uses.
24 Likes
Normally I find scam products like this annoying but only harmless to the wallet of the person being defrauded (or partly defrauded, e.g. the “magnetic” or “copper” ankle/knee/elbow braces that do have enough elastic to be a useful brace even though the woo-woo is a fraud, and the ones advertised on CNN/FoxNoise cost about the same as the non-magical ones in my drugstore.)
This one? Endangering the lives of their customers by telling them it’ll protect them from something really dangerous, so go ahead and surf in shark-infested water. They ought to get sued heavily.
14 Likes
Hope he gets his money back!
1 Like
True, Sharks really only bite if they think you are a seal. Usually they will release and then get out of there.
1 Like
The site DoubtfulNews.com had covered this story here:
http://doubtfulnews.com/2016/12/shark-repelling-device-rather-dramatically-fails-real-world-test/
It also includes a reply from the company which basically blamed the user for provoking the shark attack.
I would suggest the author of the article reword this bit:
…prompting questions about how useful this product actually is.
Surely this incident would be more accurately described as “answering questions about how useful this product actually is.”
15 Likes
There are always going to be a few defective items in any batch. Nothing can prevent everyone from getting attacked by sharks.
Wearing our wristband, it lowers your risk of being attacked by a shark to 1 in 3,748,067.
6 Likes
They claim to have tested the bands on many species of shark, but unfortunately there’s been some kind of mixup and the “research” page at the underlying tech company, Shark Defense, links to product concepts instead of peer-reviewed papers.
Oh, Rob. such a salty observation. 
8 Likes
Any reputable company would have tested this product with bums and prisoners before selling it to the general public. Shame on them!
5 Likes
Damn, I really could have used Manta-Ray repentant last week.
5 Likes
“Forgive me Neptune, for I have sinned…”
9 Likes
That’ll teach you to touch his spatula.
1 Like
He frequently goes surfing, but never has a problem with sharks until he uses the armband? Hmmmm, the anecdata suggests that the armband actually caused the shark to attack him! Perhaps that magnetic field just pissed it off.
9 Likes
That shark bite looks painful, I hope they were able to get him to a homeopathic “doctor” in time!
The great thing about homeopathic doctors is you can pay them with small bits of ripped up utility bills.
Also good to note that many aquatic predators hunt by electroreception, which is sensing the electromagnetic field of their prey. So unless a device put off a great enough field to be painful, it is pretty much a “free lunch here” sign for anything in the water.
I certainly would not be inclined to try any of these devices unless thoroughly tested and proven.
A weak magnet is like selling a gazelle suit as lion repellent. I’m thinking this band made him more likely to be attacked, i mean the shark bit the arm it was on even.
17 Likes
But, swimming with Manta Rays is cool! Why would you want repellent?
5 Likes
I do rather wonder if the magnet was simply perceived by the shark as some sort of fish, and it got confused. The vast majority of shark “attacks” are sharks that aren’t sure what the humans are and take a tentative nibble to see if they’re something they want to eat (and then decide that they aren’t).
2 Likes
Bah, the kid probably just had it on backwards, so naturally it attracted sharks instead of repelling them.
26 Likes
But… but I saw this on Innovation Nation!
3 Likes
assumption is that it’s a regular magnet.
It’s even worse than that: it’s a shark magnet.
23 Likes
Now if we can only develop a chick magnet… hmm
10 Likes
