SHARKS AND MEN GO FISHING

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 17, 20 January 1934, Page 21

SHARKS AND MEN GO FISHING

Men struggling side by... side with sharks to; snatch food from schools of mullet and kingfish' provide an everyday sight at Samarai, Papua, according to Mr. W. H. Wright, who was interviewed while visiting Sydney. The natives .hurl a stick of gelignite into a school and the explosion instantly attracts dozens of sharks that hang about the - harbour all day long. Just as swiftly men and boys dive from, canoes and race the monsters for the stunned fish. ...".,...■ ... ;■ •. ■'. ■ ■ Mr. Wright, who for twenty years has managed the Ahioma desiccating coconut factory, knows of only one boy who has been bitten by a shark iii these circumstances. He lost a foot. "With the advent of white men the natives find that blowing up a school of fish is much simpler than netting or fishing for them," . said Mr. Wright. "But the lurking sharks soon worked out what the explosions mean. "It is a thrilling sight. The natives stand ready in their canoes, stark naked except for diving glasses,. Within a second of the explosion the diving boys have disappeared. Swiftly the foam is blood-stained, but only • from the destroyed fish, and the ones .torn iji pieces by the sharks. "The. boys bob up between the shark fins and fling their catches into the canoes. I have been tempted often to dive in, too, but the boys point to my white skin and /deter me. They say a shark sees their black bodies and imagines they are just another lot of big fish., There are no white fish, so a white'lnan's body scares them, and as the first law of Nature is selfpreservation, the shark in its fright turns on a white man. '' While the natives never hesitate

to hop among sharks, they are scared stiff by deep-sea pike, solitary, -voracious fish that prey by stealth and lurk everywhere. They have been known to swallow prey so large that the captor has died in,"the attempt. I have seen the boys come: to the surface, their faces 'whitel" with terror and gasping, 'Pike!' in the same way as terrified Australians cry, 'Sharks!' "The natives are not cobbers with the sharks.. When the school fish are scarce'they harpoon a few sharks, the flesh of which they grill or roast in hot ashes."

There are other thrills 'in ,Papua. Mr. Wright sails about the islands in a schooner recruiting and paying native labourers- under Government.. supervision. In north-east Papua When a party of boys leaves in Mr. Wright's boat, the whole village will" hold a "Christmas".or big feast of pigs, fish, and yams, which goes on into the night. When departure time comes all the women, young and old, gather on, the beach and light torches, which they wave rhythmically, while others wail and scratch their faces and bosoms until blood flows. ' '

The boys climb into the • rigging of the schooner and stare at the- weird spectacle until the torchlights wink and fade from view/ In two years these labourers will return to spread their wages, now tobacco, belts, knives, combs, and beads, among the rest of the village. '

It is near where Mr. Wright lives that a tribe of'natives by the sea use strong spider webs as1 bait in fishing. The web catches in the fish's teeth. Sa in this village! spiders are encfrur-' aged and housewives leave cobwebs alone. . •