OW Swimming during menstrual cycle

I always heard that a shark can smell a drop of blood a mile away, and I worry about this all the time because I frequently cut myself on coral. So yes, it is a valid concern. Stick to the pool during those days. Sharks swim right up to the edge of the shore here in the bay and I'm not going to tempt them with blood.

I had a friend who was very into scuba diving in high school. She said that sharks can tell the difference between menstrual blood and blood from other sources, but a quick google search found this: www.flmnh.ufl.edu/.../mens.htm

And I heard that sharks can distuinguish fresh shed blood vs. menstrual blood I don't think anyone really knows but it makes some sense to me that since we are nto thier prey they would not be interested (at elast for whites, some of the bull and nurse sharks in other parts of the world seem generlaly agressive to everyone all the time). In any event i find no reports of mensturating women attacked by sharks. THere's more fear than truth out there. Maybe you could check with Scripps and tell us all what you find out. As for the Fletcher Cove incident, there was a seal on the beach in fact all the seals and sea lions had reportedly beached, were they fleeing a predator in the water? Seals and sealions are known to beach when there's a big predator in the water. Lots of women out at the cove in various parts of their cycles, no sharks and notably a lot of the recorded shark attacks are male. Now it has been reported subjectively that the seals and sea lions become more friendly or curious at certain points in a woman's cycle. So set aside your fears of sharks and look for the real things to fear-getting hit when crossing the street to the cove, going head on into a swimmer with his eyes closed, swimming hard into a buoy or getting hugged by a seal (stinky)!

And I heard that sharks can distuinguish fresh shed blood vs. menstrual blood I don't think anyone really knows but it makes some sense to me that since we are nto thier prey they would not be interested (at least for whites, some of the bull and nurse sharks in other parts of the world seem generlaly agressive to everyone all the time). i don't think this is true. i've encountered nurse sharks several times and they seem mostly uninterested, although a 6 footer nearly head-butted my swim buddy while he was fumbling with his camera. we also swam above an off-shore cobia cage that 3 10' bull sharks had taken up residence beneath. they swam out from below the cage, i guess to see what was going on, but always remained more than 50' below us. clare got spooked and exited the water, but willie and i continued swimming for about 30 minutes.

I had a friend who was very into scuba diving in high school. She said that sharks can tell the difference between menstrual blood and blood from other sources, but a quick google search found this: www.flmnh.ufl.edu/.../mens.htm that article states:"This reflects a historic pattern of more males engaged in marine aquatic activities, especially those that put humans most at risk, e.g. surfing, diving, long distance swimming....." i don't think there are any, (if any) attacks on record for long distance swimmers, though there have certainly been quite a few sightings. i would also be curious to see what the ratio of wetsuit: nekked incidents is.

I may be paranoid but I use hormones to rearrange my cycle around long swims (MB TMI?) Saw lots of nurse sharks in Key West, one of which was 6-7 ft long. They all bolted when they saw my face. I would NEVER stay in the water if I saw a bull shark. They are responsible for far too much nastiness where I come from.