PERSPECTIVE 



INTRODUCTION 



Except for occasional flutters of publicity when attacks occurred, sharks 

 were of academic interest to only a few scientists before World War II. 

 Then, when servicemen were victims of air and sea disasters and met sharks 

 in their own environment with tragic consequences for the men, the U.S. 

 Navy gathered a team of experts to produce a solution. An excellent ac- 

 count by Bernard Zahuranec of Shark Chaser, the chemical repellent, and 

 its initial acceptance and subsequent rejection may be found in another 

 section. 



A veritable explosion of investigations in shark biology and a mushroom- 

 ing of knowledge of sharks followed creation of the ONR-sponsored AIBS 

 Shark Research Panel, a product of the New Orleans Shark Conference in 

 April 1958 (Fig. 1). Members of the original panel were Sidney R. Galler, 

 John R. Olive, Leonard P. Schultz, Stewart Springer, and Perry W. Gilbert, 

 chairman. Albert L. Tester and H. David Baldridge became members in 

 1964 and 1968, respectively. The panel catalyzed and coordinated more 



Figure 1 Four distinguished participants in the New Orleans Shark Conference, 

 April 1958. Left to right: Gilbert P. Whitley, Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia; 

 Leonard P. Schultz, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; J. L. B. Smith, Rhodes 

 University, Grahamstown, South Africa; Carl L. Hubbs, Scripps Institution of Ocea- 

 nography, La Jolla, Calif. 



