Sharks In Crime And Commerce

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 237, 5 October 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

Sharks In Crime And Commerce

A FASCINATING volume from the pen of Mr. Gilbert P. Whittey, of the Australian Museum, Sydney, has just been published by the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales. It deals with the Australian sharks and the related stingrays and has the virtue of having been written in a breezy, entertaining style, yet with no sacrifice of accuracy.

Every aspect of the shark is covered —its classification, descriptions and figures of the species, economic value, instances of attacks on man, and even a section dealing with the strangest of all —"Sharks and Crime."

Fortunately in Xew Zealand our sharks have a better reputation, for there are very few records of attacks by these creatures on man. And of the several known instances, spread over a period of more than half a century, there is no authentic record of a deliberate attack.

In Sydney, however, not a year goes by without several additions to a Rapidly mounting list of shark fatalities. Mr. Whittlev records some 216 known Australian instances of shark attacks on man and fcaift, many of which ended fatally.

By A. W. B. Powell

In Press reports the grey nurse is most frequently mentioned as the most dangerous species, but this is not actually the case, the white shark and the blue pointer being the chief offenders. The blue pointer occurs in New Zealand also, under its better known local name of niako. This shark, however, is a denizen of the open coast and, as most Xew Zealand bathing beaches are in moderately enclosed waters, the mako is not tempted to attack as in the case of the Sydney beaches, which are exposed to the open Pacific.

Another factor is that the eastern Australian coast descends rapidly into deep water, whereas there is an extensive shallow area or continental shelf around most of the Xew Zealand coast. As the greatest concentration of animal life occurs in the shallow waters, it may well be hunger that drives the Sydney aharks to attack man. Certainly a well-fed captive shark shows no desire to exercise his carnivorous propensities as has been demonstrated by the two in the Taronga Park Aquarium at Sydney, which swim ceaselessly and totally ignore the various species of fish and turtles that share the pool.

The larger of the grey nurse captives is 11 feet long and weighs 3361b, and it has been estimated that this creature

in continuously patrolling the 60ft by 40ft pool has, during the six years of its captivity, travelled some 200,000 miles, equal to eight times round the world. The appetite of this large creature is surprisingly modest, amounting to 1702001b of fish every year, or 481b per month in the summer, but only 3-4lb monthly during winter* - • Many readers will recall the amazing "shark arm case," of Sydney, in April, 1935, when a tiger shark caught off Maroubra disgorged a human arm unaffected by digestion and showing tattooing that definitely associated it as the arm of a billiard-marker, James Smith, who was missing and has not since been traced. As no body has been found to this day and the principal police witness was found murdered in his car diortlv after the discovery of the arm, the case was finally dropped for, according to the statute "de officio coronatoris" of 1270, a single limb could not be considered a corpus delicti; and that no inquest could be held without more substantial proof of the death of the owner of the arm. As Egon Kisch remarked in his boik, "Australian Landfall" the arm which "should have been avenged did not become an avenging arm." Another extraordinary case of & shark witness goes back to 1771, when the captain and crew of the brig Nancy were tried and sentenced at Kingston, Jamaica, for piracy off the coast of Haiti. The damning evidence was contained in some papers thrown overboard by the captain, which were recovered from the maw shark captured by

a naval. Vessel near JacmeLThese papers are stilt preserved in the Jamaica liwti. tute at: Kingston. As this article seems in of becoming'*, crime thriller, I had better change the subject and conclude by mentioning the value of sharks commercially. Some years ago a shark fisherv was established on the New South Wales coast and a market waa found for the skins as substitutes for leathers, and the oil from the livers proved almost equal to that of the famed cod-liver oil, being extensively used for medicinal soap making, and even for the tempering of steel. As a cattle food and tonic the oil his its uses also, and it is even to be found in some paints, designed for outside use. This latter point is of special interest in New Zealand, for shark oil with redochre formed the durable red paint which the Maoris used so successfully for their houses, carving and canoes. In" the Technological Museum, Sydney, there is » display of articles made from shark products, the most striking being a. pair of tan shoes that, to the uninitiated, appear indistinguishable from ordinary leather. Since the outbreak of war norma] supplies of cod-liver oil have greatly diminished, and Australia haa revived her shark oil industry, the market value of the refined oil now l>eing about 5/6 a gallon. Recently I read of a successful Fijian experiment in which copra wa» refined as a fuel. If we could find a means of utilising shark oil for this purpose we would indeed be doing a kindness to the Sydney bathers.