“I grew up in South Australia where I had surf shops for many years. That’s where I met Andrew Fox of Rodney Fox Tours. I worked in the surf shop industry for 18 years. My partner Lizzy and I left Adelaide in 1999 and moved to the Northern Rivers. We were in Lismore for a while when I was the CEO for First Sun prior to moving to Lennox Head where we still reside.
Three years ago we were sitting around the dinner table with some friends and we were talking about all the shark attacks that had been happening in the area. There had just been an attack in Evans Head where that fellow received some nasty injuries. Liz said, if you can make a Kevlar lined pair of jeans the motorbike riders wear for protection surely we can find a fabric to incorporate into a wetsuit to help protect from blood loss in a shark attack. I started researching it and developed the idea. The whole process has taken about 3 years. I’ve played around with all sorts of fabrics and I found this fabric in Taiwan. By putting the fabric either side of Neoprene it is a lot stronger. I patented the idea and they constructed the fabric. It’s called Sharkstop.
We had a lot of trouble trying to get the money together to do the testing. I’d applied for a number of grants through the DPI to get some help with funding. Eventually I was talking to Andrew Fox who suggested I contact Charlie Huveneers who is a Professor of Marine Science at Flinders University. He does this type of testing and get’s money from the DPI. Charlie included the fabric testing in the submission. He is one of the few people in Australia allowed to work with White Pointers because they are protected. It was through Flinders University we got the grant. The Uni received $90k to test all these gadgets, fabrics, electronic deterrents, magnetic attachments, all sorts of shark repellents. According to what I’ve been told by the crew who were watching the testing, our fabric Sharkstop has been the best of all of them.
To do the testing they get a slab of polystyrene, fill the inside with slabs of tuna and pressure meters to gauge the strength of the bite. They then wrap our fabric around. (see photo supplied by Sharkstop). The shark grabs it and wants to take it to the bottom and eat it. They had to do 10 tests. The shark bit on it a number of times and the fabric remained strong. If it were a person, the bones would crush but you wouldn’t bleed out. It’s the blood loss that kills people.
One of the first people I spoke to when I was thinking about this was a guy called Trevor Long from Seaworld. He gave me half an hour and just as we were leaving he said..I think your idea is great. If you can stop the bleeding, you will save the victim. We haven’t got the money to develop this suit so hopefully a dive company will come along and want it incorporated in their suits. If not a whole suit Charlie Huveneers has made a body map of all the hit points in shark attacks over the years. He can work out the best places to put panels of the fabric.
Andrew is the son of Rodney Fox (tours). Rodney was spearfishing years ago and was attacked by a huge White Pointer. He was badly bitten around his chest and arm. He is regarded as a miracle survivor of one of the world’s worst non-fatal shark attacks. In the attack all his ribs were broken on the left side of his body. His abdomen was exposed, his lung was ripped open, his spleen was open, his artery was exposed and his veins were collapsing from blood loss. He still has a sharks tooth in his wrist. He ended up needing 462 stitches after the attack. The bite was a semi circular bite from his shoulder right down to his hip. The shark grabbed him and shook him violently and then let him go. He went on to spend a lot of time with Jacques Cousteau and to this day he is a defender of sharks. They do lots of research. Andrew took us out on the boat for a cage dive. They are magnificent creatures.
By developing this suit we not only aim to protect people from sharks but also sharks from people. If people can be protected we may not need drum lines and nets which cause so much damage and kill so many other sea creatures needlessly.”