SHARK CATCHING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 12, 15 January 1943, Page 2

SHARK CATCHING

OPERATIONS CEASE BIG TOLL IN FIVE YEARS (0.C.) SYDNEY, Jan. 13. It is most likely that there is some casual connection between the cessation of shark meshing off Sydneybeaches and the prevalence of sharks this season. In the last fortnight .there have been several shark alarms. At Manly on Sunday, on the harbour, not the surfing side, Jack Hodson, 15-year-old shop assistant, dived into water which he knew was infested with sharks and rescued Robert Laws, 32, a non-swimmer, who slipped from a narrow plank leading from some' piles to rocks and fell into 40ft of water. Hodson, who was 300 yards away setting a fishing-line to catch sharks, saw Laws struggling in the water. He threw off his shirt, ran up a steep embankment, and made a detour through bush to reach the spot where Laws was drowning. was almost unconscious and several feet under the surface of the water when Hodson reached him. Shark meshing off 21 beaches from Palm ii each to Cronulla has ceased because the two boats employed by the contractor, Captain C. R. Stuart, have been called up by the Federal Government. Reviewing the results of meshing during the last five years Captain Stuart said: "For five years I have had 12 men working 365 days in the year attending to mesh nets. During that time they have caught 2800 sharks. The men put 'down 12 nets a day. Each net measures 500 ft, and goes to a depth of 30ft. Sharks moving inshore get caught in the mesh. In the summer we often caught as many as 25 to 30 off one beach. The meshing also frightened away lots of sharks. "The nets were made of manilla trawl twine braided by hand on to ropes. They had lead sinkers on the bottom and glass floats on top, with two anchors to each net. The boats were required to sink the nets and bring them in for overhaLil and repair."