Sharks are most likely to attack surfers and other unsuspecting swimmers in shallow water, on Sundays, during new moons and especially in August, according to a study released Thursday just in time for summer.

Young surfers in black and white bathing suits are most vulnerable toshark attacks or bites, the University of Florida study found.

It based its conclusions on observations and statistics gathered over a 50-year period in Florida’s Volusia County, known as the “shark attack capital of the world.”

“Human, shark and environmental factors combine to create a perfect storm of favorable conditions in Volusia County for attacks, particularly near Ponce Inlet between Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach,” said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida.

We’re gonna need a bigger wind turbine. Or maybe not. German researchers are using shark skin to make windmills spin more efficiently, and generate more electricity. Not real shark skin, thankfully. This is shark-line skin that can be painted onto wind turbines, airplanes and ships to reduce flow resistance, or drag. Does this make your “Jaws” drop?
This type of biomimicry has already been tried with cars, to improve mileage, as Michael reported last year. The latest version comes from Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Germany, dubbed as the leading organization for applied research in Europe.
Shark skin was the inspiration because fast-swimming sharks have evolutionary scales that allow them to move quickly through the water and nab their prey. Swimmers and surfers, take note.
The shark paint was developed by Yvonne Wilke, Volkmar Stenzel and Manfred Peschka of the Fraunhofer Institute.
They say the paint system can lower costs, and as a result, carbon dioxide emissions. The recipe for the aerodynamic skin involves nanoparticles, to allow the paint to withstand ultraviolet radiation, temperature change and mechanical loads, according to information from the institute.
The paint lasts for about five years, at which time it has to be removed and reapplied. The paint is applied with a stencil (according to Stenzel), to give it a shark-skin structure.
For wind turbines, and commercial wind-energy parks, the paint could reduce air resistance, improve efficiency and result in greater energy generation, the researchers say. They estimate the paint could save almost 4.5 million tons of fuel a year if applied to every airplane in the world. Now that would be quite a contract.
For a large container ship, the paint could reportedly reduce wall friction by more than 5 percent a year, saving 2,000 tons of fuel annually.
The next task for the Germans: To develop shark skin paint that resists algae or mussels that accumulate on ship hulls.

“This was the heaviest thing that has ever happened to me,” said professional surfer Greg Emslie after an encounter with a massive white shark at Queensbury Bay yesterday – Sat 22 May.

An idyllic surf at the Eastern Cape point break, with fellow professional surfer Rosy Hodge, came very close to ending in tragedy, with Emslie being relentlessly circled and buzzed by a great white, and Rosy almost paddling straight into the danger zone.

“The whole thing must have taken about three to four minutes, but it felt like absolute ages,”said Greg. “I had plenty of time to size it up, and it was probably about four metres in length. It was like right out of the water. Both fins out, just staring at me. We had full eye contact for most of the time as well, just fully sussing each other out the whole time.”

East London is well-known for shark encounters and attacks, and there was an attack a few weeks ago down the road at Port Alfred. While this didn’t lead into an attack, it was enough to rattle the two surfers properly. “I was just thinking, this is it,” said Greg. “I’m going to get hit. It kept on coming at me, while I sat with my feet up on my board.”

Rosy had just caught a wave and had ridden it in. When she started paddling back out, she had no idea what was going on. as Rosy recalls, “Then Greg started shouting and I thought, ‘Oh cool, he’s claiming my wave.’” Rosy continued to paddle. “Earlier in the day we had had some dolphins around and when I saw the two fins I thought there were two dolphins by Greg. As I got close I saw that it was a gaint shark, showing it’s dorsal and tail fin, and I realised that Greg was in serious trouble.”