Uuuhh, old thread, but consider this. Hovercraft, Aircraft and Helicopter mod can...well,...fly above water.
So can somehow it can be applied to player as well ?
When over water surface the player creates ripples, while in reality the player is "hovering" in another surface.
That way biters can't "swim".
This mod would be very helpful with cargo ship mod, that mod is awesome but placing the waterlines (equal to railway in land) is not very fun.