Scuba diving in the tropics

[Bede735]

What about sharks? Would they be more likely to chomp on bare flesh rather than clothing? After all, the first victim in the Jaws film was naked.

[Torchwatch]

Sharks are amazing, they have good eyesight, are sensitive to vibration and chemicals as well as having an amazing sense of smell/taste.
They are always hungry and if they consider you edible they will bite.
They have to keep moving to push oxygenated water through their gills so they never stop moving.
The advantage to being bitten while wearing a wetsuit is that the wetsuit will contain those bits of you not bitten away so increasing your chance of survival.
Did I mention that sharks can detect electrical activity in water ?

I took a small group of young people to a beach on the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary, the water is muddy there. One of the young people had a wee while wading in the sea (no one else about for miles), a few seconds later a 6' blue fin shark popped out of the water to have a look around close to them. I was impressed at the speed at which the young people were able to cross the sand back to the beach, they never thought that sharks can't swim on sand when the tide is out or that blue fin sharks are harmless.

[underwearphil]

It is some years since I did any scuba diving in the Red Sea. Always had a wetsuit. Once you get below about 30 feet, the water gets cool, it is only the surface layer that is warm. It is not as good idea to risk muscular cramps in cool water when deep diving. Agree with other posts that wetsuits also protect against jellyfish stings (some of the tentacles can be metres long!), puffer fish toxic spines and abrasions from coral.
More recently, have done snorkelling in Maldives and Mauritius, just going down to about 20 feet. I am happy to just wear brief speedos or similar (but still need to look out for dangers!)
I started my scuba diving around the coast of the UK. Thick wetsuits essential! Was diving on wrecks, going down to about 120 feet. There the water was only 4 degrees Celcius.
Unfortunately, my ears are not up to deep scuba diving now. I miss it. I must just stay near the surface, in my speedos.

[PSDave]

Originally Posted by Bede735

What about sharks? Would they be more likely to chomp on bare flesh rather than clothing? After all, the first victim in the Jaws film was naked.

You are right -- if you are scuba diving at Universal Studios in Hollywood there is a possibility that a big rubber shark may attack you. (the same one from the movie)
Actually you are in more danger from Moray Eels - their teeth can penetrate flesh or wet suits with great ease. (about 100 needle like teeth) In 25 years of Scuba I have only seen sharks once and they ignored me.