The Dr. Gruber Shark Repellent Story
1993
A true story
Written 08/24/2016 Re-written 2/2019
Howard Yasgar
In the 1990’s I had a company called API Marine, and I was involved in the marine industry.
I had a dear friend named Richard. Richard was an absolute expert in all phases of the marine industry.
At one time or another Richard had done just about everything in the industry. Richard was a fellow that just loved everything and anything that had to do with the marine industry.
Because of Richard, I was introduced me Dr. Sonny Gruber.
Dr. Gruber is a professor with the University of Miami and he is the world’s foremost authority on Lemon sharks, and he is pretty much an expert on anything to do with sharks.
You can usually see Dr. Gruber when it’s “Shark Week” on television.
Dr. Gruber runs a shark institute on the island of Bimini in the Bahamas.
At Dr. Gruber’s institute on Bimini, scientists studying sharks come from all over the world just to study about sharks with him.
Running the shark institute is quite an undertaking, and it requires a lot of work, as everything they need there has to come over by boat from Miami.
So my friend Richard, always went out of his way to help Dr. Gruber. He did it by finding boats that were needed to ferry supplies from Miami to Bimini.
Richard even went along on many of the supply trips with Dr. Gruber.
So that’s how I met Dr. Sonny Gruber, it was when Richard brought him over to meet me.
One day my friend Richard tells me the following story.
He said that Dr. Gruber, early in his career, like most all professors do, he was always seeking government grants. Dr. Gruber had told Richard that the government had many subjects that they were interested in doing research on, and all professors have access to the list. Then If a professor see’s something he or she is interested in they can write up a proposal, and if it is accepted, the government will give them a financial grant to do the research.
So early in his career, Dr. Gruber saw that the government was looking to solve a problem, sharks were attacking the sonar array that is towed behind all military submarines.
Dr. Gruber had an idea, he knew that there was a fish living in the Red Sea, called the Moses Soul Fish, and sharks just won’t eat them.
Dr. Gruber felt that the Moses Soul fish must have some kind of natural anti-shark chemical in it.
So he suggested that he be given a grant to study what the chemical was.
The government must have liked his idea because he received a grant to move to Israel with his family for two years and study the Moses Soul fish that was located in the Red Sea.
After the two years in Israel, Dr. Gruber had extracted and synthesized the anti shark chemical.
He gave all the information to the government and he never heard any more about it.
One evening many years later, Dr. Gruber and Richard were sitting on the beach in Bimini, and Sonny Gruber told Richard the story about the shark repellent.
Richard became excited, he knew that everyone in the marine industry wanted a shark repellent.
So Richard asked Dr. Gruber to please contact the Navy to find out what happened to the anti-shark chemical he had synthesized.
Eventually Dr. Gruber received a reply from the Navy, they felt that because the chemical had to pass through the sharks gills to be effective, they couldn’t use it and Dr. Gruber could do whatever he wanted with it.
Richard was ecstatic, he wanted to set up a company right away to market the shark repellent, and that’s when I came into the picture.
Richard came to me, and he was very excited, he said he thought everyone wanted a shark repellent and he Richard had the exclusive rights to market Dr. Gruber’s shark repelling chemical.
Richard said that with my distribution network we could market the shark repellent to every marine dealer and dive shop in the United States.
Richard was sure it was going to be a financial success, as everyone had been looking for a shark repellent ever since WWII, when pilots that crashed In the Pacific were attacked by sharks before they could be rescued.
I asked Richard how Dr. Gruber’s shark repellent worked, and Richard said the chemical needed to pass through the sharks gills, when it did, it irritated the sharks gills, and caused it to swim away.
I gave it some thought, it all sounded too impractical to me, how would someone ever squirt the chemical in a shark’s mouth so it would pass over its gills.
I was surprised when Richard said that was no problem, and he unfolded a set of detailed drawings of a compressed air gun that could shoot the repellent.
I could see Richard had put a lot of time and hard work into designing the shark repellent gun. The drawings were technically perfect and all had been done in color.
In Richards invention, the repellent was in a cartridge and it was placed in the gun. Then a small compressed gas cylinder was also inserted. He said the gun could be used several times before the compressed air cartridge needed to be replaced.
I couldn’t believe that Richard actually thought someone could shoot this thing into a shark’s mouth.
Richard was very excited, he said we could sell the repellent and gun to the life raft manufacturers they could put one in with each raft they sold.
I said, how could people sitting in a life raft ever use it, as it needed to be shot into the shark’s mouth. Richard said we could put a set of underwater goggles in with each kit, and he was serious.
I tried to calm Richard down, I said, Richard, I think Dr. Gruber’s shark repellent is worthless, no one would have the nerve to get in the water with sharks to squirt it in their mouth.
I think Richard was starting to realize that what I was saying was true, so he then said, well, we can sell it to dive shops. Scuba divers are in the water anyway and they would have no problem squirting the chemical in a shark’s mouth.
Well I had to agree with Richard on that point, so I made a phone call to one of our sales representatives that also called on dive shops, and I introduced him to Richard. Richard asked if the salesman could sell the shark repellent to dive shops.
The salesman said, “NO Way”, He said scuba divers love sharks, that’s why they dive in the first place, they want to attract sharks, not scare them away.
It was several months later I read that someone had invented a shark repellent that you wore like a belt, and it slowly dissolved in the water and chased the sharks away.
That invention sounded a little more practical, Richard must have read about it also, as he never mentioned Dr. Gruber’s shark repellent to me again.
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