SENSORY BIOLOGY: PACIFIC SHARKS 597 



observations may be to bring into focus a rewarding area for further com- 

 bined biological and anthropological research. 



LOCALITIES AND SOURCES 



Field observations and interviews were carried out between November 1974 

 and March 1975, in Micronesia and northeastern Australia. Yap, in the west- 

 ern Caroline Islands of Micronesia, yielded especially interesting information. 

 The extensive collections of the Micronesian Area Research Center (MARC) 

 at the University of Guam were particularly helpful and were used exten- 

 sively. Ethnographic materials from the Solomon Islands and the Northern 

 Territory of Australia were studied at the Museum of the Northern Territory 

 (Darwin) and the Australian National Museum (Sydney), and later in the 

 British Museum (London). Access to museum materials and invaluable dis- 

 cussions of their uses and interpretations resulted from the generous aid of 

 specialists at each of these institutions. 



Information concerning the Fiji and Gilbert Island groups was drawn 

 mainly from interviews with Dr. Ronald Gatty, whose personal experiences 

 with sharks and shark fishermen in those areas is probably unexcelled by any 

 other Western observer. In addition, Dr. Gatty provided translations and a 

 manuscript copy of his major study on Fiji, now in preparation (Gatty 

 1978). 



To overcome problems of misunderstandings or inaccuracies in the verbal 

 source material (never previously recorded so far as is known), we held 

 interviews with at least three individuals who could provide first-hand ac- 

 counts of local observations on sharks. No information not consistently 

 reported by all three sources has been incorporated in this summary, unless 

 it could be checked by direct personal observation. No doubt some valuable 

 material has been excluded by this conservative policy, but it was judged 

 better to provide a firm basis for future studies rather than strive for pre- 

 mature, and possibly erroneous, comprehensiveness. 



INSIGHTS AND EXPLOITATIONS OF SENSORY MODALITIES 



In the southwestern Pacific, knowledge of the sensory abilities and behavior 

 of sharks is used most often in fishing. It may also be important in connec- 

 tion with safety precautions taken by those active in waters frequented by 

 potentially dangerous sharks. Parallels between scientific conclusions and 

 strictly local empirical observations in the Pacific area are sometimes quite 

 striking. They are most conveniently discussed according to the sensory 

 modalities involved. 



Acousticolateralis System 



Attraction of Sharks by Sound— Nelson and Gruber (1963) and 

 Nelson and Johnson (1972) demonstrated that pulsed low-frequency sounds 

 attract many species of Atlantic and Pacific sharks. A comprehensive review 



