Former NASA engineer tests shark's blood detection skills

Former NASA engineer Mark Rober decided to investigate a common stereotype about sharks that fans of the children's movie Finding Nemo might recognize. He introduced blood into the ocean to see if sharks could sense it from a distance of approximately 1.6 kilometers.

The iconic scene from the beloved children's movie Finding Nemo, where Bruce, the great white shark, goes into a frenzy after smelling a drop of Dory's blood, has intrigued many, including fans and scientists alike.

To test if sharks can indeed detect the scent of blood in the water, former NASA engineer turned YouTuber Mark Rober embarked on an experiment to find the truth.

Rober, 44, traveled to a shark-populated area 29 kilometers off the coast of the Bahamas to conduct his experiment. He was accompanied by marine biologist and shark diving expert Luke Tipple.

Rober assured his audience that he had developed a "solid testing method" and created "NASA-grade equipment" to examine the long-standing belief that sharks go into a frenzy at the scent of human blood.

He explained that his goal was to determine how far sharks could sense a single drop of blood in the water. First, he wanted to confirm that sharks indeed prefer blood over other scents.

Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) read up on sharks to understand more about the threat facing his island community in JAWS (1975)

Rober set up four surfboards, each releasing about 7.5 liters of different substances: fish oil, cow blood, seawater, and urine. These substances were released into the ocean over an hour while Rober and Tipple observed from their boat, noting the number of sharks attracted to each board.

Four sharks were drawn to the fish oil; none showed interest in the urine, but the board with blood attracted as many as 41 sharks. Although this experiment wasn't a formal scientific study, it clearly demonstrated that blood was the most intriguing scent to sharks, debunking the surfer's myth about urine attracting sharks.

In the next part of the experiment, Rober assessed the sharks' interest in surfboards leaking drops of human blood. One board was set to release one drop of blood per minute, while another released one drop every four seconds. Over an hour, no shark showed interest in either board.

Rober concluded that while the experiment wasn't perfect, it provided enough evidence to suggest that since no shark was drawn to a board dispensing 15 drops of human blood per minute in shark-infested waters, minor scratches are likely not a significant concern for attracting sharks

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