THE USEFUL SHARK

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 108, 3 November 1937, Page 5

THE USEFUL SHARK

ITS VALUE TO INDUSTRY

I It need occasion no surprise that ! sharks have been sighted in the seabathing waters round our coast, for specimens of the shark family are found in all oceans—tropical, temperate, and even' Arctic, says the "Manchester Guardian." They are migratory, following the schools of food fish, and they propagate at an astonishing rate. Authorities on ichthyology claim that between 1,000,000 and 1,250,000 a day pass in and. out of the ! coastal channels between Cape Hatteras and San Rogue, a stretch of water about equal in area to that of the English Channel. There are no fewer than 514 species of sharks, and they run up to fifty feet in length.

I According to Dr. Ehrenreich, foun- | der and president of the Ocean' Leather Company, an American concern, shark leather is very durable and possesses an attractive grain which it is impossible to imitate. A pair of shoes made from such leather will last at least five [times as long as a pair made from the be?t calf leather. Dr. Ehrenreich declares that no portion of the fish need be wasted. In fact,, he declares that the dreaded scavenger of the ocean is as valuable to man as a pig. In addition to leather from the hide and stomach he head boils down for glue, the teeth are sold to jewellers, the fins to the Chinese, the liver and fat can be converted into oil, and the carcass into chicken and Cattle food and also into an excellent fertiliser. Shark meat, in fact, is edible and appetising. The American Bureau of Fisheries has issued a pamphlet giving as many as thirty different recipes for, dishes of shark'meat.