SHARKS AS FOOD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25566, 20 June 1944, Page 6

SHARKS AS FOOD

Among the heavy-weight fish such as groper, cod, and ling, displayed at the Wellington public markets on a recent morning were perhaps 15 or 20 fair-sized sharks, a little over two feet in length on an average. Sharks (states the Dominion) have come on the market only recently because of the prejudice a'gainst them as food entertained by white people, though Maoris have relished them for a long period. Now they are being offered at the city markets almost daily, and the fishermen who catch them' in their nets or on their lines do not kill and cast them overboard as they used to do. They may not be sold directly as shark over the counter, but merely as fish, just to pander to the old prejudice, but they bring an average of 3d ’a pound at the markets most days, and, when there are plenty of other they are purchased for the zoo sealions, who have the liveliest appreciation for shark meat.