Most of the time, the ocean is a place of play and leisure. People surf, dive, and swim alongside marine animals that don’t care they’re there. But on rare occasions, a shark mistakes a human for prey — or simply investigates with its teeth. Those extremely rare moments are dangerous not because sharks are out to hunt us, but because a single bite can cause massive blood loss before help arrives.
That’s why researchers in Australia are experimenting with a new kind of protection: wetsuits woven with high-tech fibers tough enough to resist shark teeth. In a recent study, they found that these bite-resistant suits didn’t stop sharks from biting, but they did reduce the most severe injuries — the kind that can cost someone a limb or a life.
In a study just published in Wildlife Research, Australian researchers tested four new “bite-resistant” fabrics by letting great white and tiger sharks chomp down on them. The results were surprising: the sharks still bit, but the worst damage—big punctures and catastrophic tears—was dramatically reduced.
“While there were small differences between the four tested materials, they all reduced the amount of substantial and critical damage, which would typically be associated with severe haemorrhaging and tissue or limb loss,” said Dr. Tom Clarke of Flinders University.
How to Test a Wetsuit on a Shark
The researchers went with their wetsuits into the very water where sharks live — South Australia’s Neptune Islands for white sharks and off Norfolk Island for tiger sharks. They lured the predators with fish bait, then swapped in “bite packages”: boards wrapped in foam, covered with either normal neoprene or one of the new bite-resistant fabrics: Aqua Armour, Shark Stop, ActionTX-S, or Brewster.
When sharks bit down, their teeth sank into the foam, which mimicked the density of human tissue. Researchers then measured the bite damage, classifying it from superficial to critical. Over the course of 19 days with white sharks and five days with tiger sharks, they collected data from 152 bites in total.
The verdict? All four fabrics cut down on the worst injuries. Tiger sharks never managed “critical” damage with any of the bite-resistant suits. White sharks sometimes did, but at far lower rates than with neoprene alone.
Prof. Charlie Huveneers, who led the project, summed it up: “While these suits don’t eliminate all the risk (e.g. internal injuries may still occur), our results indicate that they can reduce blood loss and trauma from major lacerations and punctures, potentially saving lives.”
Sharks, surfers, and survival
Statistically, shark bites are exceedingly rare. You’re more likely to be killed by lightning or a boating accident. But when sharks do strike, injuries are often devastating because of rapid blood loss. According to the Australian Shark Incident Database, over the last decade an average of 20 people were injured and nearly three were killed each year in shark incidents in Australia.
Most of those injuries come from great whites and tiger sharks, the same species tested in this study. Their teeth aren’t just sharp, they’re serrated like steak knives.
“A lot of the teeth on white sharks and tiger sharks … have these really sharp, pointed edges and serrated edges, and that’s where a lot of the damage from bites occurs,” Clarke told The Guardian. “The material itself stops the tooth from puncturing through the material.”
This doesn’t mean the suits make you invincible. Bones can still break. Muscles can bruise and rupture on the inside. But shaving off the most catastrophic injuries could buy surfers and divers the time they need to get help.
And there’s another benefit. Non-lethal shark safety tools like this help balance public fear with conservation. Shark nets and culling reduce risk for swimmers, but they also kill turtles, dolphins, and sharks themselves. Bite-resistant wetsuits belong to a different toolkit — one that lets people feel safer without killing marine predators.
“By giving people these evidence-based mitigation strategies, that they can actually take control of, is really important, because it gives them that empowerment as well,” said conservation psychologist Brianna Le Busque.
These new wetsuits won’t turn you into Aquaman. But they might give you a fighting chance if a shark mistakes you for a seal.
