SHARKS DO EAT MEN

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 269, 13 November 1935, Page 18

SHARKS DO EAT MEN

TIMID WHEN WELL FED

HUNGRY — EAT MAN OR WHALE. A SCIENTIST'S OBSERVATIONS (By IRA WOLFERT.)

NEW YORK, October 8. Sharks are not man-eaters. Those shark bites you hear about are really barracuda bites.—William Beebe. "Not, mind you," said Dr. E. W. Cudger, associate curator of icthyology at the American Museum of Natural History and a shark specialist, "that the shark cares, but I see where the public prints are giving our toothy friend a going over. The do's are walloping the don'ts and the don'ts are scathing the do's. I'll show you some photographs that wilj settle the question onee and for all whether the shark is a man eater or not. You take one look at these and you'll be able to make up your mind." Dr. Gudger began to poke among an overpowering array of filing cabinets. "Some years back," -ie said over his shoulder, "I was bending" over the rail of a steamer anchored in the Huglili River in India, watching some sharks do things to garbage. A couple of drunken sailors were standing nearby arguing the question. One said they did eat man. The other said no. The 'no' boy decided to prove his contention. Before I could stop him, he dived over the rail. and landed with a powerful wham squarely on the back of a shark. The shark cut for deep water and kept on going. The sailor thrashed about a bit and pretty soon scared off all the sharks. The 'yes' boy seemed to be pretty well shaken in his opinion the time his friend was lifted back on deck.

"I had a similar experience a short while ago in Florida," continued the doctor. He had the photographs in his hand, but he kept them covered up. "We were fishing off Key West and sharks were biting into our catch. My guide, Griffin, a native of the district, offered to go over the side and beat the sharks up, but I managed to restrain him, and these pictures will tell you why I tried very hard to do so." He threw the photographs on the desk. The pictures were of individuals who had been bitten by sharks. Each bore horribly vivid crescented scars. "No fish in the sea and no animal on land," said Dr. Gudger, "nothing that lives except a shark could make a scar like this." "How account for the fact," asked the reporter, "that natives in sharkinfested waters swim fearlessly a,mong them and that a scientist like Beebe could make such a gross error ?" "The fact, I think," said Dr. Gudger, "is that Beebe never has been bitten by a shark yet. The natives are a little more difficult to explain away. "The shark is undisputed king of the seas. No other fish—not even porpoises or whales —will dare attack it. But the shark is a very timid king. Except when hungry it will go farther to get away from man than man will go to get away from it. I've seen a hungry shark attack a whale and I've seen a well-fed one run atoay from a splash of an oar. "To give yon an idea: If you throw a stone at a barracuda, it will dart away and then circle back to see who was getting fresh. If you throw a stone at a shark it may dart away and keep on going or it may swallow the stone. "It's this lack of bravado that has given some people the idea sharks are not man-eaters. But you can say for me that a hungry shark is absolutely fearless and will eat anything. A shark once tried to eat a rowboat I was in, and when I threw a harpoon at its side the harpoon bounced, off as if from armour plate. "The average shark has more than 200 teeth. It lias enough power in its jaws to bite a man in two with a single snap. And since it is hardly possible to ask a neighbouring shark whether it is hungry or not before putting yourself in reach, I have always stayed out of water occupied by one." Christopher W. Coates, curator of tropical fish at the aquarium in this city, has something to add to the subject of the power of a shark's bites. "A baby shark was delivered to us the other day in a wood-lined tank," said Mr. Coates. "When it came time to lift it out I grabbed hold of its tail, but it sank its teeth into the sheer the tank and I couldn't pull it loose. Three men, all yanking together, couldn't do it; either, and we finally had to poke its nose until it let go." (N.A.N.A.) J