Fond of the ocean waters and how the glorious sunrays can give you that envyingly tan but definitely scared of sharks? An Australian company has just introduced an anti-shark, 'invisibility' wetsuit that could protect the wearer swimmer from the fangs of a hungry shark.

"It's based on new breakthrough science which is all about visionary systems for predatory sharks," entrepreneur Craig Anderson, who along with Hamish Jolly, created what is touted as the world's first anti-shark wetsuit.

“The combination of contrasting colours and differing types and sizes of the shapes ensures optimal effect at various depths and distances,” according to Shark Attack Mitigation Systems (SAMS), the company responsible for the anti-shark, ‘invisibility’ wetsuits.


"We've been able to interpret that science and convert that into, basically, materials that create some confusion for sharks' visual systems."

The entrepreneurs worked with scientists and researchers from the University of Western Australia's (UWA) Oceans Institute to come up with two types of wetsuit designed to protect divers and surfers from sharks.

Because sharks are colour blind, the blue pattern of the Elude suit definitely will protect the wearer from the predator animal.

Because sharks are colour blind, the blue pattern of the Elude suit definitely will protect the wearer from the predator animal.

The stripes on the Diverter suit, meantime, mirror the colours of poisonous fish thus telling the sharks to back off.

The stripes on the Diverter suit, meantime, mirror the colours of poisonous fish thus telling the sharks to back off.

Elude has been designed for divers and snorkellers, while the Diverter is geared mainly for surfers.

"The combination of contrasting colours and differing types and sizes of the shapes ensures optimal effect at various depths and distances," according to Shark Attack Mitigation Systems (SAMS), the company responsible for the anti-shark, 'invisibility' wetsuits. Together with wetsuit maker Radiator, opened pre-orders for the first suits online on Thursday from AU$429 (US$392).

Shaun Collin, UWA researcher, said the warning suit designs came up by mixing scientific discoveries and observations about nature.

"The idea is to reduce the risk of the wearer in certain conditions," Mr Collin said.

"Many animals in biology are repelled by noxious animals - prey that provide a signal that somehow says 'Don't eat me' - and that has been manifest in a striped pattern."

"We are using a lot of nature's technology based on high contrast banding patterns."

"The wearer will be obvious, and the idea is the shark will see that as an unpalatable food item and swim right by."

The designs have been tested in the water with tiger sharks.

"We now know what these big predatory sharks can see, and what we have done is convert that science into a marketable technology," Mr Jolly said.

"We have converted that into patents that we know will hide or present (wearers) as not shark food."