Humans have long had a sense that a decaying shark will drive away its own species. Records as far back as the 18th century indicate that fishermen have dangled dead sharks in the water to clear their grounds. The Navy tried to figure out why around World War II but was unsuccessful, and the second half of the last century saw gimmicky attempts at shark repellents that attempted to re-create the scent of a dead shark.

Then, around 15 years ago, organic chemist Eric Stroud and marine biologist Patrick Rice of the R&D company Shark Defense Technologies got serious about studying why dead sharks repel living ones, and how this knowledge might be used to help fishermen.

Stroud “ultimately identified about 112 of these properties, called necromones, that are in sharks when the shark is decaying. They developed several products — spray cans, a high concentration to put in the water — but nothing that was really practical for fishing,” said Luke Walsh, who owns SharkTec Defense.