Kayak Color and sharks...

[Fiskadoro]

In another thread someone asked me about my camouflaged kayak and how I thought it's color might relate to sharks, and I wrote a "novel" so I decided that I might as well make the post it's own thread.

Sorry in advance if anyone get's pissed off by this... it's just my honest opinions, take em or leave em.

So here's the yak and it's paint job...
Some may know that my Camo pattern is on there to make it less visible to seabass when pot hole'n b, but there is whole other reason, and that is the fact I put it on there to deter sharks.

So here's the basic ideas...

I used to design and build large shark trolling lures for Makos and T sharks. For a while I was even considering marketing them. I've put in a lot of time thinking about what attracts sharks and what does not.

I tried all kinds of color patterns for deep water shark jigs and by far the most effective were: Reds, Oranges, and Pinks. Followed by Yellows and Bright Lime greens, so sharks are attracted to those colors but that is not the only thing involved here.

I have fished sharks since I was a kid, everything from tigers, and 14ft hammers in the surf in Texas.... To Makos and 14ft+ Threshers here. Some people consider me some kind of an expert on them or Guru on them, which is kind of BS. I'm just a guy who's educated myself about them. I have seen and caught my share, read a shitload about them, I am friends with some true experts and basically do know a lot about them and their behavior, but I'll pass on the expert status.

My take is the Whites are here and it's just a matter of time before a Kayak fisherman get's killed by one.

Before anyone freaks out...Let's face it people die doing things all the time. I mean statistically your more likely to die of a heart attack kayaking then getting eaten by a white, but probabilities being what they are I'd say eventually it's going to happen to someone. My take is why not take steps to avoid it if you can, and for me personally...well I've killed so many sharks I can't help think that they'd love to get me if they could.

Call it poetic justice or just superstition but I've fished them for decades and seen so many sharks in the water over the years often in places you would not think they'd be, that it just makes me very wary of them. Not that it would ever keep me off the water.

Sharks are highly evolved creatures with one of the longest adaption periods recorded in fossil history. That makes them highly predictable on certain levels. Sharks are attracted to many things. One of them is their prey, and they usual find and attack prey in a predictable way.

Makos and Whites are ambush feeders.

I know more about makos so I'll start with them. Makos like to swim down on the thermocline in the open ocean and then come up and hit fish on the surface using their speed to clip off the tails of large fish like swords before the fish ever even see them. Then they let them bleed out and come back to feed on them.

Here's a great vid of a mako clopping a tail like this..




In a similar way whites hang deep watching for their prey on the surface and then they come up from below at speed and hit them hard using their jaw strength and huge teeth to deliver a crushing lethal blow before they ever see it coming. Once again they attack then wait with big prey just like Makos for their prey to bleed out and then come back and eat them.

Here's a vid of a white attack on a small seal but imagine how fast it was moving to get all that weight up into the air.



A White's favorite prey is an elephant seal, and they are not small like the pup above, they just happen to be about the size of a kayak. To a suspended hunting white thirty feet down in the water, a kayak silhouette on the surface must look a whole lot like an elephant seal. At that depth he can see you but you can't see him which is why they hunt that way but they can't see you all that clearly. So they are looking up for the dark silhouettes of their prey against the light blue background of the surface of the ocean. So Kayaks make a tempting target to them as they have the same basic silhouette or shadow in the water as a elephant seal.

Personally I think gray, dark gray, and dark green kayaks must look a lot like a elephant seal to a white. So I'd stay away from those colors from a match the hatch perspective. I think dark kayaks are the most likely to trigger a crushing attack from down deep, the classic white feeding behavior. Especially early in the morning or late in the evening, in turbid water or near the surf zone where visibly is reduced.

You might say wait a minute you said they like bright colors, and I did say that but what I did not tell you is that for makos the best colors for surface jigs not diving jigs are not bright colors but dark colors purple, black and dark green. The reason being that these colors make the sharpest silhouette or cast a better shadow and they are the easiest for makos that are hanging deep looking up for prey on the surface to see, and that feeding behavior is duplicated by white sharks.

So contrary to popular belief I think dark colors are more likely to trigger an aggressive strike response from a deep hunting white.

I'll call that the match the hatch factor.

That said: I don't think I would ever buy red yellow or orange kayak, but that is because of another behavior.

I'll call this the Yum Yum yellow factor.

Like I said sharks are attracted by bright colors, and though bright colors may not be as likely to trigger a hunting type of attack from a deep shark they are far more likely to trigger investigative behavior or scavenging behavior where a shark that is already swimming near the surface comes up and chews on your yak, just to see if it's something edible. Sharks have prey they hunt but they are oportunistic and will eat other things like dead whales that they do not hunt down.

Think about this a minute a shark looking up sees your yak against a whiteish light blue back ground of water and sky, but a shark that sees you from the side sees your yak against a green or dark blue background.

With my mako lures: the lures that dived deep got bit best if they were bright colors because the sharks were seeing them from the side not from underneath them.

Ultimately this is all about visibility, what get's seen due to high contrast is the most likely thing to get attacked or probed for scavange.

I'd say the worst case scenario is red because it is dark enough to trigger a hunting response from sharks that are deep, but also warm enough to trigger an investigative response from sharks swimming near the surface. That's why I would not own a red kayak for fishing in the ocean.

Just my take, but that is my take.

So how do you get around all this or whats the perfect color or color pattern for fishing in sharky waters. Well you only have to look at the sharks themselves to see what works. A mako is white underneath and then blue on the sides.



Millions of years of evolution has given them coloring that reduces contrast when viewed from the top side or bottom. We have used the exact same color pattern ideas for military aircraft to reduce their visibility to enemy aircraft.


Makos Threshers, whites even blue sharks all have white bellies and variations of blue on their sides.

So what would be the safest color for a fishing kayak when it comes to sharks? Well a white kayak would be the least likely to get attacked from below in a feeding type attack, and a blue one would be safest when it comes to sharks that are not hunting but swimming near the surface. If you were going to go with a solid color I'd say light blue, but ideally the best color pattern as it relates to shark safety would be a blue sided white bottomed kayak.

The topsides of course could be any color at all, as the sharks can't see you from above, so I'd say white or a bright color would be ideal for the top.

My take is that kayaking is still in it's infancy. When plastic kayaks first started being made the colors were a gimmick to give people choice, and bright colors are easier for people to see on the water if the lost their yak, or got in trouble. That said the colors we see now are not going to be around for ever. It's not like you see green red or orange boats out there.

Eventually people are going to realize that some color choices might be safer then others when it comes to sharks. I think that is just a given. I think the first time you see someone get eaten out there in a red kayak you're going to see a lot of manufactures cut back on their production of red kayaks. Supply and demand, eventually people are going to quit buying them.

I mean the writing is already on the wall for people that are willing to look at it.

Anyone else notice a pattern here?








As to my color choice.... Well I hate blue and white yaks are harder to find. I also like the idea of being seen in the water since I don't want to get run over, and lime green kayaks show up really well in low light conditions like in the morning when I'm paddling out of a harbor.. So I figured Lime green was the least of those bright color evils, but I would of honestly bought I white one if I had seen one in the same price range.

When Josh and I started talking about seabass, kayak color, and kelp I decided to paint my yak a shark friendly light blue and then camo it with a kelp frond pattern. In theory this makes my yak harder to see to seabass and since camo patterns break up the silhouette to the eye, and the whole issue with sharks is the silhouette and it's contrast to the background that camo over light blue should be pretty safe as far as sharks go.

That said I left the topsides bright green because I don't want to get run over by a boat, which in my opinion is a bigger issue then white sharks.

So there you have my big shark kayak color theory.

Jim

[mtnbykr2]

well done, nice and interesting, I like the camo theory for the sharks and the kelp...a shark theme on a yak...that would proably sell....I wonder if one could find a "wrap" to stick to a yak...hmmmm....

[wiredantz]

Originally Posted by mtnbykr2

well done, nice and interesting, I like the camo theory for the sharks and the kelp...a shark theme on a yak...that would proably sell....I wonder if one could find a "wrap" to stick to a yak...hmmmm....

ill be intrested

[blackRifle]

What was the type of paint that was used?

[Rockin1904]

Great info on this matter Jim. Ive wondered a lot about this, but I guess the real test is just time on the water?

[deepdvr]

I subscribe to the theory that sometimes you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This pic is the NorCal dude that almost got chomped this past August. So much for the shark shield pattern on the yak.

[herbo]

Very Well Done piece of information, Jim!!! Color has always been on my mind when I step up for a new one. Have you ever heard the term YUM YUM Yellow? had heard about this way back when with no follow up, Any ideas? .....H

[WahooUSMA]

That said: I don't think I would ever buy red yellow or orange kayak, but that is because of another behavior.

I'll call this the Yum Yum yellow factor.

Phaaqing great! I just bought a yellow Torque! Thanks...LMFAO. That's why I C & R all Threshers.....you never know when a T's cousin, Whitey or Mako is in the mood for a nibble or is pissed you harvested a family member!

Good info...but from my past experience...when your time is up, your time is up! I used to think there was a bullet out there with my name on it. Well, I made it out. I guess it wasn't my time then. Hopefully, its not now or anytime soon, especially by way bleeding out due to getting munched.

It is the Pacific Ocean, there are dangers abound, and you are entering their food chain....That said, Hey Rik, do you have another demo, say in Camo?

[WahooUSMA]

Just one quick final thought.....sometimes when I am sitting out there all alone, clear or gray skies, dusk or dawn, I get the major 'turtle is peeking' syndrome in my @ss! Don't really know what it is, but it sure as hell makes you think....the Tax Man is out there! That's usually when I call it quits for the day!

[herbo]

Doh! Yum Yum Yellow....so much for evlyn wad sped red couse.....H

[poorpaddy]

I think it was looking for creme filling!

Originally Posted by deepdvr

I subscribe to the theory that sometimes you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This pic is the NorCal dude that almost got chomped this past August. So much for the shark shield pattern on the yak.

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by deepdvr

This pic is the NorCal dude that almost got chomped this past August. So much for the shark shield pattern on the yak.

This is the classic example of someone taking an idea they do not understand and using it in a way that it actually achieves the opposite effect of what they are going for.

The idea behind the concept that patterns would deter sharks is that a pattern breaks up the silhouette of the object involved, minimizing it's contrast with the surrounding environment like camouflage. From that basic concept some people took that all patterns deter sharks and started painting zebra stripes on their surfboards. Now those black zebra stripes on white surfboards are not a terrible idea as they make some sense because in the water the white turns to light blue and the black to dark blue and to the shark that looks like rippling surface water, but the stripes really should go all the way to the edge for them to be effective.

This guy took the zebra stripes and went a step further, and painted high contrast black bars on his Yum Yum yellow yak.

In order to break up the silhouette first the pattern needs to go all the way to the edges and second it part of the pattern has to blend in to the environment the yak is in. His pattern does neither. It instead looks like some high contrast road side sign, that's there to alert a driver to danger.

Don't paint that pattern on your kayak.



Warning signs are yellow and black for a reason it's to make them stand out and be more visible to the eye. His stripes rather then make his kayak less visible to sharks just make it more visible and therefore more interesting to sharks. So essentially his stripes made it even more attractive to sharks, which might well be a factor in why it was attacked.

Once again it's the Yum Yum yellow factor.

Like I said sharks are attracted by bright colors, and contrast and though bright colors may not be as likely to trigger a hunting type of attack from a deep shark they are far more likely to trigger investigative behavior or scavenging behavior where a shark that is already swimming near the surface comes up and chews on your yak, just to see if it's something edible. Sharks are opportunistic and will eat other things that they do not hunt down. Just like a good looking babe draws your attention when walking by that high contrast pattern on that yak caught that sharks eye and made it worthy of investigation.

This may seem wild or new but it's not. People have been fishing small boats in the ocean for thousands of years and it's always been traditional to paint hulls white aqua or blue. I bet you money that centuries ago local fisherman in shark infested waters figured out that white or blue hulls were less attractive to sharks then bright colored ones and that is why that tradition exists.

Before rotomolded kayaks most commercially available kayaks had white hulls. For instance I bought a Altura Kevlar yak that I'm going to put a hobie drive into. It's yellow and a non traditional shape but it has a traditional white hull like all their traditional touring yaks

That is actually the very kayak I now own, nice but I'll probably eventually camo that bottom as well.

As to your stripe guy...If he wanted to make his yellow yak less interesting to sharks all he had to do is paint the bottom white or blue. The last thing he should of done is put high contrast stripes on it because that's like a high contrast invitation for trouble.

Just my take...


Jim

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by blackRifle

What was the type of paint that was used?

Krylon Fusion for Plastic...


It's alright: it sticks but not like automotive or a good paint on glass or metal. Slowly wears off but it's OK and I think it does stick better then standard spray paint.

Jim

[deepdvr]

Originally Posted by Jim Day

As to your stripe guy...If he wanted to make his yellow yak less interesting to sharks all he had to do is paint the bottom white or blue. The last thing he should of done is put high contrast stripes on it because that's like a high contrast invitation for trouble.

Just my take...


Jim

I think we all know we are fishing in the taxman's backyard. As you said before, its a numbers game and somebody's number will come up eventually. I really don't buy into all this color/pattern nonsense.....unless you enjoy sitting on a ridiculous looking yak.

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by deepdvr

I think we all know we are fishing in the taxman's backyard. As you said before, its a numbers game and somebody's number will come up eventually. I really don't buy into all this color/pattern nonsense.....unless you enjoy sitting on a ridiculous looking yak.

I used to know a old guy that only fished two colors of lures: white lures and black lures. He used white lures on sunny days, and black lures on cloudy days, and he was a hell of a fisherman, and caught a lot of fish.

One day we were talking about it and he said essentially what you said: I really don't buy into all this color/pattern nonsense. If a fish wants to eat a lure it's going to eat it.

My take was fair enough, I mean whatever works for you. That said at the risk of looking ridiculous I'll stick to the blue and white irons and the sardine and mackerel patterned lures, the zukini and mean joe green colored feathers and marlin jigs, and all those other lure patterns I like to use and have had success with because between you and I and the rest of the internet world...... I really do think when it comes to what fish and sharks are attracted to, color does in fact make a difference.

More then one way to skin a catfish though... and to each their own.

Jim

[wiredantz]

Proverb:

The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.



I don't doubt Jim words. I could just imagine how a red kayak looks under the water. It probably looks like a handicap seal that is bleeding. (because the light will disperse the red in the water and makes it look attractive) So the attraction is there.

and i also believe that we are in the worng places at the wrong time.

time and unforeseen circumstance will befall us all.


This being the case, taking extra steps to protect one self is not a bad idea and these shark infested waters. Especially if you tend to go out by yourself like i do.

[Iceman]

So who is packin' heat?

[Ed]

Originally Posted by wiredantz

I could just imagine how a red kayak looks under the water. It probably looks like a handicap seal that is bleeding. (because the light will disperse the red in the water and makes it look attractive) So the attraction is there.

When I dive under and look back up at my yak all I see is a dark silhouette against the sky. Can't even make out the color. Just sayin........

[wiredantz]

Originally Posted by Ed

When I dive under and look back up at my yak all I see is a dark silhouette against the sky. Can't even make out the color. Just sayin........

Well, i could be wrong. lol


I just used a glass of water and put in a red plastic coated pen and it made the water look red.

So i would just say in the right conditions it would probably disperse the color red in the immediate water surrounding the kayak.

[dos ballenas]

In Southern California we only have to worry about Great whites for the most part. Unfortunately socal is home to a large number of immature and juvenile GWS. Fortunately, when they are small these sharks are mostly fish eaters.

That being said, if the young ones are born and grow up here then the mammal eating mothers must also be here. This may cause some concern, but if you run the numbers, the probability of getting attacked by a shark on a kayak is very, very, very low. How many shark attacks have you heard of in socal? Compare that to how many people go swimming, surfing, kayaking, etc.. everyday in socal. Of course the chances go up if you spend more time OTW. Not to mention that GWS populations are slowly growing.

If you're worried about sharks, then you might as well stay home and never leave your house. Its more dangerous crossing the street to get a donut. I'm personally more worried about the 16 year old that just got their drivers license...

That being said, shark avoidance is a great idea... but then you have to think about why and when most shark attacks occur... Most of the time shark attacks are a case of mistaken identity.... most of the time they occur in murky water with low visibility. Most of the time GWS are ambush predators. So how visible is a kayak, or the color of a kayak, in dark, dirty water? Good question.

In regards to color preference when using irons or jigs IMO: color matters, but the action or way the jig swims is more important. The action is a combination of the jigs shape, and the fishermens presentation. Many people say size doesn't matter... whats important is how you use it. IMO, I think size, color, and action all are important. But they are not equally important.

The only shark attack I can think of that occured in socal was a case of mistaken identity in low visibility water which leads me to believe that the shark was keyed in on the action of the swimmer and not their color...

The fact is that GWS are all around us all the time. If they wanted to eat humans they wouldn't have any problem doing so.

Just go fish... you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.