SPORT WITH SHARKS

Evening Post, Issue 29, 4 February 1935, Page 14

SPORT WITH SHARKS

ACTIVITIES OF PILOT FISH

INSPECTION OF BAIT

Complicated and difficult though the process of locating and repairing damaged ocean cables is, ' there were incidents on a recent trip of the cable ship Recorder which relieved the hard work that had to be undertaken. There was, for example, some shark fishing. Mr. Wyvern de Clive Lowe, a final year medical student at Otago University, who acted as ship's surgeon, together with other officers, had some sport with the sharks which abound in. the waters off Norfolk Island, reports the Auckland "Star." Although using no special tackle, and having to bo content with ordinary heavy snapper lines and hooks, several grey, nurse sharks of from between Bft and 10ft long were caught:

"The sharks were not taking the bait well," said Mr. de Clive Lowe, "..in spite of tasty bits of raw meat and fish from'our refrigerator. We soon discovered the reason. The faithful little black and grey striped pilot fish, two of which follow every jig shark, would swim forward from their masters and inspect the bait. Returning, they would seem to indicate in some amazing way that the bait was dangerous, and the great'shark would veer sharply off and . disappear. We saw this happen several times, and it was the most uncanny thing I have ever seen.

"There were also a large school of blackfish, which followed us for some time until the sharks frightened them off, thousands of flying fish, who made the sea appear alive, and—the most extraordinary sight of all—acres of the brownish spawn of some species of fish through.which we steamed.

_ "Although at times the heat was terrific, reaching 132 degrees.in the furnace room, it was an idyllic trip—calm seas and tropic nights of the sort popular novelists write about. We even had a musician on board who entertained Uo in the evenings with melodies on his Spanish guitar while .we watched the islands of Norfolk, Philip, and little Nepean silhouetted in the moonlight."