NEW INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 31, 5 August 1929, Page 11

NEW INDUSTRY

SHARK HUNTING

EXCITING OCCUPATION

Shark hunting—hunting the tigers of the sea—is Australia's latest industry, and one of tho most exciting in the world. At Pindiman, Port Stephens, near Newcastle, New South Wales, an experimental shark fishing station was established in 1927, with headquarters in the old Government trawling station, writes Donald Thomson in tho Melbourne "Sun News-Pictorial." .'

Within a few months hundreds of sharks were captured in the hugo " gill" nets—for nets, not lines, arc employed in this wholesale big-game fishing, and thousands of gallons of shark liver oil was produced.

But, valuable as this oil is commercially, it was for the hides—the shark leather, chiefly—that the fishing station was really established. Shark leather, once a process was perfected and established as a commercial pro cess for removing the "placoid" scales, the "shagreen," the leather was in great demand.

And now Port Stephens, once a quiet fishing centre, renowned for nothing more exciting than . its oysters, bids fair to establish an international repu tation as the home of real fish tales.

At first only two boats, specially built for the purpose, each thirty feet in length, and fitted with 12 h.p. full Diesel engines, were employed. These stout, seaworthy little vessels operated one or two. of the huge nets—each net being over 600 feet in length and about 30 feet in depth. Technically, these shark nets are known as "gill" nets, and are of about 8, 10, or even 12-inch mesh. The nets are anchored off-shore —not in very deep water—and each morning visited by tho boats. Most of the sharks, caught about the gills, are already drowned, but those that are still able to fight are either knocked on the head by means of a heavy club'or are dispatched with a pistol. ENORMOUS CATCHES. A day or two with the shark fishermen of Port Stephens was a memory not easily forgotten, for there is more than a spice of adventure in shark fishing in the open sea in a thirty-foot boat. Since the foundation of the fishing station a tremendous toll has been taken of sharks —including thousands of big specimens of man-eating, forms, but sharks have been as numerous as ever about the Newcastle beaches. The biggest shark taken in tho. ''gill" nets which are in. use was eighteen feet in length—a great tiger, which weighed half a ton. Over 16,0001b of shark oil has been taken in a single haul. . During a recent scare at Newcastle the "Devil," one of the fishing fleet from the- depot at Port Stephens, went south to wage a war against the sharks which had been worrying bathers. Ono Sunday evening the Devil. put down a single gill net 1000 feet in. length, which was anchored off Moana Point, near Newcastle, and as closo to the swimmers as the boat could be worked. Another net was placed along tho" beach, within about 50 yards of the surf. ' Next morning an enormous catch was taken from tho nets. There were several Tiger sharks, from 16 to IS feet in length, the largest of which weighed half a ton, and any one of which could cut the entire body of a man in half at a single snap. Grey Nurse sharks, the most feared of all on the east coast of Australia; whalers, great white sharks, and the beautifully marked- Wobbegong, or Carpet shark.- Most of these sharks, taken in a singlo set of the huge nots, must have been regularly within a" few hundred yards of the surfers frequenting Newcastle beaches, and, doubtless, a similar catch could be made at most times in the summer about Sydney. Tho wonder, when one considers the risk taken by bathers, is not that there are so many shark tragedies, but rather that" thoro are comparatively so few. ■'■'■'■' DANGER TO MAN. Several marine experts, including.Dr. William Beobe, of the Now York Zoological Society, have exprossed tho deliberato opinion that man has nothing to fear from sharks; that they aro, in fact, not roally dangerous to man at all! To one, who has spent somb time with the shark fishormen, and seen somothing of the fearful voracity of these scavengers of tho sea, this 'statement does not fit the facts. I have seen great rends, in a shark, freshly takon from tho nets—the work of "a cannibal shark which had attacked it aftor it had become enmeshed. Whon the shark is hungry, nothing, living or dead, comes amiss. Sharks have boon known to attack fishing boats, and oven to-day, when the Blue Pointer comes nosing about thp boats of the Italian fishermon at Port Stephens, they leave the fishing ground with scant ceremony. MONSTER AND ITS MENU. The following inventory of goods, probably not a full meal by aiiy means, was taken from tho stomach of a 17----foot Tiger shark after being landed on the dock:— Item 1. —One whole dolphin's head. Item 2.—One whole porpoise's head. Item 3.—Eight crayfish. Item 4.—A number of small" fish. Item s.—One large portion of a whale's backbone, woight 251b. Item (s.—One still larger portion of a whale's vertebral column, weight 301b. '

Still another shark, whose menu was tabulated for mo by Mr. Norman Caldwell, a keen naturalist, who is in charge of fishing operations at Pindimar—in this instance a female Tiger shark had devoured the complete head of another Tiger, also a big fin, a set of teeth of a Whaler shark, and parts of the jaw of yet another Tiger—a lady of confirmed cannibalistic tendencies. There are bright spots in the lives of thoso who hunt the wolves of tho soa, as well as times of stress ana danger. The following incident actually occurred at the dock at' Port Stephens. I repeat it below in the actual words of Mr. Norman Caldwell:— "Tho boat had just como in, and wo were busy hauling the sharks out. One chap, bigger than usual, was slung up on tho tackle, and, -following the usual custom, the stomach bag fell out of the monster's mouth, and, with it, the contents of the stomach, which all-fell back on to the deck of the, boat. Fish, birds, crayfish—and among all this medley of things stood out a man's handkerchief, carefully knotted, and bulging with treasure.

One of the crew, quicker than the rest, waded in, and, heedless of the awful mess, grabbed the bag, and, with eyes bulging, watched us all, to see that we were not going to steal it from him. I told him to open it, and, with trembling fingers, he began to untie the knots. But the digestive juices of the shark had made it very slippery, ana it slid from his fingers, almost over the boat's side. A howl of real dismay came from the onlookers, who saw their share of the treasure going to the bottom; but, with a lunge he recovered it, and the contents lay before our eyes. Gold! Not Silver! No! Just four little dead kittens. That man will not forget the howl of derision that arose as, with a savage oath, he hurled the thing overboard!

"Another shark had a complete sack inside it! I wonder," finished Mr. Caldwcll, "if fie got hoia of Santa Clans—it will lie a. bad look-out for tho kiddies nest Christmas."