Years ago I read an essay by travel writer Tim Cahill, who described going free-diving off the South African coast; he was writing about the various scarily-unregulated tour-boats that would give tourists a change to get in a shark-cage to see great whites. Cahill went free-diving with an expert diver, and a camera man. Obviously, free-diving in waters teeming with great whites is not for the faint of heart.
What always stuck with me about his story was that the diving expert he was with gave Cahill a board to carry with him. It was abot the size and shape of a boogie-board, and it was painted very basically with the markings of an orca's body — black with the white belly line and eye-spot. He was instructed to carry the board flat against himself while swimming, but if any great whites should approach, he was to flash the painted side of the board at them.
He said it worked like a charm. Approaching great whites would abruptly veer off and swim away briskly the moment they got a flash of the orca markings.
I risk my life in this kind of science based reporting and am subjected to ridicule. See if I tell you how to play canasta with grizzly bears, god damn it.
