Here is a link to a real life dolphin vs. great white and surfer in CA

http://www.comcast.net/providers/fan/popup.html?v=59403...xml&cvqh=weird_shark

if that doesn't work you might be able to look it up on the fox news channel website

I just saw a rerun about the shark/dolphin myth & i had two reactions - the first was based on several comments about whether the shark was tricked by the fake dolphin - there are many instances where real animals are faked out by fake animals...
Duck Decoys
Scarecrows
Fake Owls to ward off other birds
maybe a shark is smarter but then again maybe they just get faked out...

2nd Point:

Maybe Mythbusters are on to a whole new way to protect surfers and swimmers... what if there were lots of Fake Dolphins anchored just off shore to ward of Sharks? Maybe this would be the 'Silver Bullet' to protect beach goers... it's worth a try and might be a relatively cheap way to save lives...

Could juice it up with fake dolphins that could also emit 'dolphin' sounds as well...

Is this to crazy to consider?

cheers,

jake

I don't know about sharks being scared of dolphins, but the dolphins will attack and sometimes kill sharks for sure to protect other dolphins and i've heard for people too. i think that shark is just scared of the big piece of mechanical foam having a seizure on the surface of the water. sharks aren't that dumb im sure they can tell thats not a dolphin despite its appearance. it's still cool though

This whole myth test is poorly done.

Every shark week on the discovery channel I hear about how sharks feel the electrical impulses made my living creatures to help determine what is food and what is not. Its almost like a sense of taste before they bite.

Foam dummbies have no signal and might as well be a floating log.

I saw a tiger hark dissection, where several partially digested dolphin were found in the stomach.
Obviously -that- shark knew how to deal with its fears!

what about the reactions, sounds, and smells of the dolphin? wouldnt this make a difference? the only accurate way to test this is to put a live dolphin and shark together, which is probably illegal.

Even if their tests weren't accurate, dolphins have been known to protect their pod by attacking and even killing sharks. The myth is true, whether tested right or not.

Yep, Dolphins and Sharks are bitter enemies and Dolphins will kill them period.

Dolphins ROCK!

I could not believe my eyes! I always thought that sharks would eat dolphins, not fear them!

Sharks travelled the seas long before mammels existed, so whales and dolphins are relative newcomers. Perhaps somewhere in their evolutionary ancestery, dolphins developed a taste for shark. Maybe that is what caused their ancestors to walk into the sea in the first place! Whatever the case, the results were very intriguing.

It's well known than many sharks, particularly Great Whites, EAT dolphins.

Dolphins also have been recorded killing sharks.

Furthermore, the fake dolphin failed to mimic real dolphins in three ways:

1. Wrong scent
2. Wrong electrical signature
3. It was alone! Real dolphins are very social and swim in packs. As soon as I saw that they were building just one dolphin, I noticed that. Ten dolphins in a pack CERTAINLY would protect you from a shark much better than a single one.

My main concern with this experiment is that they should have tested other marine animal likenesses. I'm wondering if once the likeness reaches a certain size the shark will be repelled.

I don't really think anyone should take this one seriously.

Marine Biologists have probably been studying this for decades, what do you expect the Mythbusters to be able to prove in a day?

At first I thought "A shark will only be afraid of a Dolphin only if it's a Orca" lol Technically Orca's are part of the dolphin family but are obvisiouly whales.

I think a shark simply wouldn't want to fight off a dolphin just to get to it's food.

quote:

Originally posted by stumptified:
sharks are highly tuned in to electrical impulses. couldn't using an animatronic dolphin have put a signal out that the shark didn't like?

This was exactly my concern. There are even devices that are sold as shark repellents that use electric impulses to scare sharks away.

Alright I have not read the other pages so this may have been said. But, I believe the sharks were not scared of the dolphin itself but by a larger object coming at them at higher speeds. They need to try just sending a block at them at a high speed and see the results.

If sharks are so smart and need electrical impulses and correct smell to be fooled by decoys, then why did they keep trying to eat the flat, plastic seal decoys? Hmmmm?

The dolphin Adam and Jamie created was AMAZING! One of the most beautiful things I've seen them do. My guess is that it probably confused the shark in that it looked so close to a dolphin, but his other senses were telling him otherwise.

I agree with their assessment, based on what happened on this episode and all the other stories out there, it's certainly plausible and was well worth a mythbusters episode.

However, if the guys want to have another go and make other mechanical sea creatures to retest some of the concerns here in another episode, I'd love to see it.

I think that this mythis totally true but I would have to say that they could have used a thicker seal. Over all I loved the supersized mythbusters episode and that is all I can really say. *<

I never did see what happened to the dolphin (fill me in?) but i noticed that Jamie didnt make the dolphin able to actually swim.
I didnt really get that- - but thats beside the point. I think if the dolphin was swimming, they would have gotten some better results. Just a suggestion Jamie and Adam!

I agree that dolphins have been seen to attack sharks in the wild. But it is also true that sharks, big ones eat dolphins. People have mentioned several methods sharks use to detect their prey. One of which has been mentioned but not named on this forum yet. The sharks have a skin based orgasn called the lateral line. This allows them to detect all living beings in their environment. Since all living beings put out an electrical field which sharks can track.

The artificial dolphin Adam and Jamie built was nice but it would not register to a shark as a living being. As for sharks biting various non-living things. As mentioned on many shark weeks over the years, when the sharks are on the final attack on their prey they close a special membrane over their eyes to protect them from the prey.

Sharks and dolphins fit into the balance of nature. The largest of the dolphins (Male killer whale) can openly kill the largest present predatorial shark with ease, as demostrated a few years ago near San Francisco, CA. (The battle was filmed, badly but filmed none the less.) Also remember Killer whales are one of the few animals in nature other than man that will meet out revenge on something that has caused them that need.

As far as I am concerned they didn't carry out this experiment to any sort of plausible conclusion. THey need to retest this myth in other ways. One way would be to go to those waters where the sharks jump clear out of the water. In these areas the experts pull a silhouette of a seal which causes the sharks to leap fully out of the water. They could pulla dolphin silhouette in a similiar way. That way we could see if those sharks jump for flipper in the manner that they jump for seals!

Wait a min.???? HOW could a sharks be a AFRAID of dolphins IF they're the greatest under water killing mashine????

A good way to find out is to put blood in the water then have a speaker that gave out dolphin noises and if a shrek does not come in about 30 min then you would know if they where afrais or not.