back to article SHARKS tempted by BIKINI CLAD Thanksgiving BABES

Half-naked women will swim with great white sharks in an experiment conducted by a marine biologist to understand the fish's hunting patterns. Dr Ryan Johnson told ABC News's Nightline programme that he wanted to dispel what he considers to be rotten myths about the powerful sea creatures. He has dived with sharks countless …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. sprouty76
    Thumb Up

    "Doing little sharky things" is an excellent description of what sharks do.

  2. Heironymous Coward
    Childcatcher

    Wrong group

    I have nothing against attractive young women working while wearing bikinis, in fact I am all for this practice becoming as mainstream as them wearing sandals. However, I can't help but think that this project is putting those few who are already genetically pre-disposed to working in bikinis at some risk, thus reducing the likelyhood of them passing down their genes to future generations.

    Wouldn't it be better to safeguard them? I would prefer, say, to find these young ladies work wearing a biniki in an office downtown somewhere, perhaps in or next to an IT department.

    And let a group of young, male, attractive bodybuilders work with the Great Whites, thus raising MY odds of passing my genes along - perhaps with one of the aforementioned bikini-clad beauties...

    P.S. is it Friday already??

  3. I'm Brian and so's my wife
    Mushroom

    Sharks with frickin' lasers

    I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit: it's the only way to be sure.

  4. Andy Fletcher
    Thumb Up

    Phew!

    I had a bad feeling this might be a story of someone going for maximum publicity by deftly combining sexy gurls with huge man eating sharks. Luckily, it clearly has nothing to do with sensationalism and everything to do with science.

    1. Ralph B
      IT Angle

      Huge Man Easting Sharks

      Was this huge man eating sharks the same guy that took up two aeroplane seats in the other story?

  5. Jonathan White

    I foresee nothing that could possibly go wrong with the endeavour.

    (where's the 'batshit mental' icon?)

  6. ElReg!comments!Pierre

    Harmless?

    Vell, you just vait til vee fit dem vid our nice liddle lasers...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Mmmm...

    Some years back I was scuba diving near Fish Hoek. Fortunately I was as unfit as I am now and used my tank of air in no time. Half an hour after getting out of the water someone else diving there was killed by a shark. I'm not so sure you can simply say "down boy" to a shark. However, a diving manual I had at the time had a chapter on what to do in a shark attack. The writer admitted he'd never experienced one, but said he wasn't too worried, as the shark "would never find him in the brown cloud that would form around him."

  8. rinsure
    WTF?

    tigers and whites

    I'm sceptical about the benefit of having girls in bikinis proving what other people have been doing for a while.

    True pioneers in this are people like William Winram and Frederic Buyle - check out Fred's pics here: http://nektos.net/

    I think Mike Rutzen was doing things like this years ago, too.

    Still, the girls will look better in bikinis, eh?

    1. Kobus Botes

      ...as has Ron and Valerie Taylor

      http://www.ronvaltaylor.com/

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_%26_Valerie_Taylor

      I remember an article from a dive magazine in the early eighties, where they stuffed dead fish into an arm, wearing a light chain mail suit, to prove that sharks were mindful of breaking teeth and would not blindly try to rip off the arm in trying to get at food.

      See here for more detail: http://www.scubaherald.com/valerie-taylor-70-years-and-still-playing-with-sharks/

  9. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Control group

    Perhaps it's the bikini that is protecting them from the sharks?

    Where is the control group of bikini-less young women ?

  10. Bodestone

    It's a well known fact...

    .. that autoerotic asphixiation kills more people each year than sharks.

    After all, sharks are fairly straighforward when it comes to sex.

  11. David Robinson 1

    Let's hope that none of the women are menstruating while taking part in this experiment.

    Then again, if it is that time of the month, I feel sorry for the sharks.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    For my next project,

    I'll employ bikini girls to prove...er...well, I'll just employ them,

  13. Mikey
    Go

    Clearly they're only MAN-eating, and therefore the bikini-clad lasses will be perfectly safe. Simple, logical steps...

  14. Johnny Canuck

    Hate to say it

    But these are WILD animals whose behavior is unpredictable. For reference I point you to Timothy Treadwell, who made the assumption that it was perfectly safe to live with Grizzlies.

  15. Neil 13

    Don't worry. They couldn't hit an elephant from her...................

  16. Big Al
    Facepalm

    Accident waiting to happen.

    All this fluffy idealism is lovely of course, but when the neighbours' kid gets eaten for trying to pull the same stunt, can his parents sue the guy for encouraging public stupidity and recklessness?

  17. Wombling_Free
    Thumb Up

    Sharks are lovely

    There's nothing wrong with swimming with sharks - they are gorgeous in the water, quite friendly and inquisitive; certainly much smarter than the average fish.

    Just don't go in at the times they like to feed - dawn & dusk or on grey days - which is when the vast majority of shark attacks occur. They like to hunt by silhouetting their prey against the sky, while remaining invisible themselves, so bright daylight from above is no problem. Night is not so good, mainly because you can't see them. Bright moonlight is risky.

    Swimming - particularly 'noisy' swimming, like trashing around, surf-board paddling - at those times is the equivalent of going for a walk wearing nothing but a suit made of raw lamb chops in lion park.

    Basic rules to stay alive; always good to learn them.

  18. json

    "The biologist is confident that his angels will be safe during the live broadcast.." or it could be one gory "blood bath".

  19. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    @hate to say it

    "But these are WILD animals whose behavior is unpredictable. "

    That's not true, so long as you listen to them, pretend to enjoy the stupid chic-flic and feed them enough chocolate they can be quite placid

  20. Mark 65

    "He reportedly "ignored" the warnings that the shark was close to the shore. Michael Cohen, 42, lost one leg in the attack and his other leg was severed below the knee."

    I've never understood the logic of people who ignore such warnings especially when they are in foreign climes being told by the locals. Still, won't do that again will he?

  21. mfritz0

    This is pointless, you either do or you don't get bit by the shark. If you do get bit, then it's too late. Why tempt fate?

  22. Mike Brown

    must watch tv

    either way its win, win. Hot bikini girls, and/or live gory death by sharks! hurrah!

  23. cs94njw
    WTF?

    Hang on a second.

    He's saying White Sharks are harmless, except that he was worried because:

    "It happened to be the one time I entered into ‘white shark waters’ without some form of protection (spear gun or a poking stick) and I was alone," he explained."

    "The shark tested me for about 20 minutes circling and approaching me"

    "I was obviously breathing hard (due to nervous energy) on my scuba and I had the awful predicament of making myself very vulnerable to the shark by surfacing in its presence, or staying put, and running out of air"

    So someone who knew about sharks, still pooping himself when he saw one, and was running out of air, just about managed to escape a shark alive.

    And the random bikini girl will do better because?...

  24. Peter 53
    Coat

    WOW look at the size of those!

    Flipers.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/coat_32.png

This topic is closed for new posts.