ONSLAUGHT ON SHARKS PLANNED

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30542, 10 September 1964, Page 6

ONSLAUGHT ON SHARKS PLANNED

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.AJ

SYDNEY, September 9.

This could be a bad year for sharks—that is a view from the shark’s point of view—if present plans eventuate. Before the start of the swimming season, shark experts plan to attract sharks to beaches in an effort to wipe them out more easily.

The world’s first shark research society, formed in Sydney, is already searching for suitably deserted stretches of coastline to conduct their experiments.

They plan to lure the sharks inshore with equipment which reproduces the fluttering sound made by a wounded fish, a type of sound already known to attract a shark, and then kill them en masse. A veteran shark hunter, Mr Nick Gorshenin, of Sydney, who is credited with killing more sharks than any man alive in his 26 years as sharkmeshing contractor to the New South Wales Government off the Sydney and Newcastle beaches, said a world-wide shark-tagging programme is being set up to help trace their movements. More Learnt “It might seem hard to catch a big shark, tag him and turn him loose again, but the more we learn about sharks, the more chance there is we will stumble on some way of killing them more efficiently,” he said. Meshing would get rid of sharks, but what was needed was a more efficient method. Commenting on the announced plan of an American shark expert to repel sharks with sound waves, Mr Gorshenin said he had seen films of trials where sharks had reacted to the- method, but it was not possible to be certain whether the system was working at any one stage.

“The idea apparently is that a ring of transmitters could be thrown around a beach to give it “sound barrier’ protection, but I can’t see it being adopted here. You could never be sure the shark wouldn’t get used to it and finally ignore it. And if a shark did charge through the barrier, chasing fish in a kill-

ing frenzy, it would be trapped inside and be a bigger menace than if there were no barriers,” he said.