FEROCIOUS SHARKS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17813, 12 July 1923, Page 6

FEROCIOUS SHARKS.

■ ATTACKS ON FISHING BOATS. DESPERATE ENCOUNTERS ON THE DEEP. (jTBOIi OTO OTTO CO&IUGSPONDINT.) SYDNEY, July 5. A feeling of consternation has spread through coastal fishermen at the reports of ferocious attacks upon small boats that have been made by sharks on the South Coast of New iSouth Wales. It is said that there is an abnormal winter shortage of 'the small fish upon which the sharks are accustomed to prey, and that driven by hunger tney aro more daring and vicious than they have ever been known to be before, following the horrible tragedy off Bellambi, a small south coast centre, about a fortnight ago, when a school of sharks attacked a small boat containing four coalminers who were spending the day fishing, and, knocking a hole in the bottom of the boat caused it to fill and turn over, three men losing their lives, at least three attacks have taken place, with terrifying experiences for the occupants. Up to this time there was no record of such an attack in these waters, and, in fact, in the sailing season capsizes in shark-infested parts of the harbour have caused no alarm. The occupants hanging on tho boats and waiting to be picked up. The theory was that a shark was scared by the boat. One oi the attacks during the past week occurred almost in the same spot as the tragedy referred to above, and it is thought that the sharks must have been the same ones, with their appetites and courage whetted) by the horrible meal that the previous attack had afforded. At any rate, the method of attack was similar, the monsters making at the boat in a school. There were two men in the boat, and they could hear the swirl of the water before they realised' that the black and shining objects moving rapidly in their direction were sharks. There were several of the monsters, with their great heads on the side, and their terrible teeth bared and glittering white in the sun. The men say that there can be no doubt that the sharks were deliberately making for the boat, as they headed straight for it. In their agony of mind the men were almost petrified, but one of them, with great presence of mindj seized an oar and set up a great, commotion in the water. The effect is described as halving been extraordinary, the sharks, then within a few yards of the boat, wheeling like a flash to right and left and shooting off in different directions. Almost directly afterwards the boat was bumped on the opposite side, almost capsizing, and a black objeot was seen to dive away. It is thought that it wa>, cither one of the attacking sharks that had dived in fear when the water was disturbed with the oar, or another one that had been coming from the opposite direction, and which the men had failed to notice, owing to their attention being riveted on those proceeding from the opposite direction. no more risks ror that day. the men returned in hot haste to the snore. During the week also, two individual fishermen a little further north, had similar, though less exciting experiences, one of them being determinedly followed by a large shark, which kept wheeling about round the boat, and the other, while rowing shoreward in the evening, observing three probably following him, and coming perilously near tJ the boat, but apparently scared of tho rapidly plying oars. Fishermen are at a loss to know how to protect themselves. Some talk of carrying guns in the boats, as the sharks make an excellent mark, and some have suggested carrying _ charges of dynamite, which, they believe, would either kill or effectually scare the monsters.