Dr. Sonny Gruber of the According to Gruber: "We have been extracting certain ... chemicals out of these dead carcasses, purifying them and testing them on Caribbean reef sharks." The testing has occurred at UM’s shark research station in Bimini. (The research station is a beautiful outcropping in about 20 feet of water. Let it be known that as soon as the sharks began circling, I was outtathere!). Gruber claims to have footage of baby sharks fleeing after smelling the repellent.
Eventually, Gruber hopes to provide bracelets for swimmers and scuba divers to keep sharks at bay. Alternatively, there’s talk of a sunblock mixed with the repellent. (“Mmm, lovely bouquet. Just the right combination of coconut and rotting shark flesh.”) Although Gruber is interested in saving human lives, he is more concerned about saving the lives of sharks. He hopes that fishermen who use the repellent will decrease dramatically their shark by-catches.
