Can white sharks smell a drop of blood?

Is it true that white sharks can smell a drop of human blood from 100km away? As a cage diving operator, we wish it were true! If that were the case, we could save a lot of money by not having to buy chum products, but this simply is not true. We chum white sharks using highly concentrated oils from fish. Even with this potent mix, if the chum slick is not going in the right direction (towards areas of shark congregation), you won’t see any sharks.

The Dyer Island Conservation Trust team has tracked white sharks in chummy areas, and has found that if the shark is not near the chum slick, then they will not approach a boat. They also found some sharks that even when swimming through a potent chum slick, they would not respond to it at all. So even with a bay full of sharks, if your current isn’t going in the right direction, you may end up with a long wait to see any!