We have all seen it in movies and read about it in books — how just one drop of blood while you are in the ocean will attract swaths of sharks.
But is this accurate?
One YouTuber decided to answer the question himself and his results are shocking.
That YouTuber, Mark Rober, decided to test this theory in the middle of the ocean…in the Bahamas…where there were tons of sharks…he is brave to say the least.
First, they set up a test to see if sharks liked the scent of blood over other flavors. They grabbed four surfboards and placed fish oil, cow’s blood, seawater and urine on top of them to see what attracted what.
At first, the cow’s blood did not attract much but at the end of the study, there were more than 40 sharks by the end of the day.
There was a mild reaction to the fish oil while the urine and seawater attracted nothing.
It was then time for the next test: to see if sharks had a particular affinity for human blood.
There were controlled surfboards employed for the study — one that deployed a drop of blood per minute, one that would drop every four seconds and one that had nothing.
Researchers found that no sharks were attracted to any of the surfboards.
“I think it’s safe to qualitatively say that if no sharks came to check out 15 drops of human blood a minute in the middle of shark-infested waters, you’re probably going to be okay with a small scrape,” Rober shared.
“There certainly won’t be some kind of feeding frenzy with a single drop of blood from all sharks within a mile.”
The study should help many folks take a breath about going into the ocean with a tiny scratch but that doesn’t mean that sharks are not ferocious.
Use caution but know you are safe for the most part.
Unless you have a flesh wound. The results may be terrifying.
