When I started diving more than forty years ago in Long Island Sound, my first wetsuit was a shark skin model named for all the little neoprene lumps that supposedly contained better heat. I don’t know if it did, but it had a tendency to break easily, but it kept me warm in cold water year-round. But unlike real shark skin, it didn’t help me swim faster or more quietly.

But real shark skin, on the other hand, does not easily tear and rough human skin if rubbed against it from tail to head. The first shark I touched was a mako that we caught in Montauk and when we tied it to the boat I felt its skin and it was almost slippery going from head to tail, but very rough going from tail to head. Before anyone freaked out, we ate the whole shark that was sliced ​​into steaks and grilled with butter and pepper. Fairly good!

But the fact is, shark skin is amazing and it is very similar to stingray skin, which is a close relative. In fact, long before sandpaper craftsmen used stingray and sharkskin to smooth wood. I don’t know how long it lasted, but it probably depended on the type of wood that was sanded.

Shark skin is actually made up of microscopic interlocking teeth known as dermal scales, that is, scales of the skin. So when they swim in the water, the scales don’t create any drag, allowing the shark to move effortlessly through the water. Most shark skin is gray regardless of the type of shark, unless it is a bottom feeder that needs to camouflage itself from its prey and other predators. The skin probably protects the shark due to the strength of the skin itself that comes from its thickness and design structure. In fact, a shark’s dermal scales have a hardness equal to that of granite. Wow!

If humans had shark skin, we would probably get far fewer injuries and minor cuts and abrasions would be a thing of the past. In fact, it would be like having mini chainmail armor. Of course, the interesting part would be that they would all be basically the same color. Imagine that!

So the next time you see a shark in an aquarium or in the ocean, just look at its skin and see if you can see the dermal denticles that are unique to sharks and rays. Probably not, but now you know they are there.