Shark suit

A Shark suit is a body-cover suit made of chainmail worn sometimes by scuba divers to protect against shark bite. While the wearer will feel the full pressure of the bite, the suit prevents the concentration of force from the shark's teeth and may prevent any true damage to the wearer's tissue other than bruising. A standard shark suit cannot be guaranteed against several of the larger species which are so powerful that a specially built suit must be worn.

Development
In the late 1970s, Marine Biologist Jeremiah Sullivan developed a flexible suit of armor for divers to wear while working around sharks. Often referred to as: Metal Mesh Shark Suit, Chain Mail Anti-Shark Suit, neptunic sharksuit ( His former company name), Steel Mesh Shark Suit, etc. Jeremiah specializes in human shark interactions and manufactures advanced protective gear for professional, commercial, military and qualified sport divers who must work or dive in hazardous conditions. Jeremiah is recognized as the pioneer of extreme interactions with sharks. Using protective gear he developed, he has sustained thousands of shark bites with no significant injuries to himself, divers in his care, or the sharks with which he works. Jeremiah’s success in working with sharks, along with his many appearances in television programs like Wild Kingdom since the early 80's, shattered many myths about sharks and helped pave the way for what is now a global shark diving industry, not to mention Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. In addition to his work with sharks, Jeremiah maintains parallel careers in both art and science. He and his products have participated in over 100 television and film projects, as well as museum and technology exhibits including the Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Vitra Design Museum in Essen, Germany, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, The Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan and was a top nominee for the INDEX Award 2007 in Copenhagen. Jeremiah has moved on from the Neptunic brand that he created and formed a new company to create his next generation Sharksuits and other protective dive gear, SharkArmor Tech LLC, San Diego, Ca. www.sharksuits.com

Construction
A typical shark suit is constructed of small individually welded steel or titanium rings which is worn over a standard neoprene wetsuit. Original Sharksuits were designed to reduce or prevent injury from sharks that are involved in most bites on humans, these are primarily sharks with serrated teeth and under 8 or 9 feet in length. These frequently accidental bites will rarely be able to penetrate the rings. Similar to chainmail, inexperienced divers wearing sharksuits can still suffer dislocations and broken bones from the overall trauma caused by direct interactions with these powerful marine predators.