61 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
61 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
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| File Name : SHARKRPL.ASC | Online Date : 10/06/94 |
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| Contributed by : Jerry Decker | Dir Category : BIOLOGY |
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| From : KeelyNet BBS | DataLine : (214) 324-3501 |
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| KeelyNet * PO BOX 870716 * Mesquite, Texas * USA * 75187 |
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| A FREE Alternative Sciences BBS sponsored by Vanguard Sciences |
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The following is a curious piece of information having commercial applications
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for those who might wish to pursue it or 'other' ramifications of it.
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From Science Digest - December 1982
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"Soap" makes Sharks Flee
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"Shark!" The menacing fish closes in quickly. Without a second to spare, the
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swimmer rips a patch off his armband, resleasing a chemical into the water.
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The shark immediately arches its body away from the swimmer and speeds off.
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By the end of the decade, (this in 1982 and it's now 1994!) swimmers may
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routinely carry shark-repelling chemicals in an armband or a squirt gun. And
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the chemicals will be no more exotic than the surfactants - largely wetting
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and foaming agents - that all of us know as laundry detergents.
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Leading the research are zoologist Eliahu Ziotkin, of the Hebrew University in
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Jerusalem, and Samuel Gruber, of the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School
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of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Ziotkin was studying pardaxin, a rare
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shark repellent secreted by a Red Sea fish called the Moses sole, when he
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noticed characteristics similar to those of surfactants. Ziotkin wondered if
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the plentiful agents would work as effectively.
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When the researchers tested 16 surfactants on sharks at the University of
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Miami, two of them were effective. "They were better than the natural
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compound," says Gruber. The shark's response varied in accordance with the
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amounts used. "At high concentrations," he says, "they were WRITHING on the
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bottom, crashing into walls and FLEEING."
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Gruber and Ziotkin are trying to determine the proper dosage needed to repel a
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shark. The next step is to figure out which of the shark's organs reacts so
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strongly against the chemicals. But already, says Gruber, "we can take an
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animal ready to feed and turn it into an animal ready to flee." That sounds
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just wonderful to most swimmers.
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