606 ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR 



smaller, and some express concern about whether "new sharks" will come to 

 the vicinity of the island as a larger proportion of local sharks are taken. 

 More adequate data on shark behavior will be needed to plan ecologically 

 sound methods of meeting the people's nutritional needs. 



Risky as this fishing method may appear, the careful and prolonged train- 

 ing of young fishermen evidently pays off. All informants agreed that they 

 knew of no injuries inflicted by sharks on Fais islanders. By contrast, several 

 volunteered accounts of serious injuries, including losses of hands or feet, 

 sustained by Japanese fishermen who fished for sharks from boats in the area 

 of Fais. "When the shark is known truly good," summarized one informant, 

 "injury is not possible"— a viewpoint that seems to justify hope, along with a 

 lot of patience and further study, for neophytes from other cultures who 

 have reason to work with sharks. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



A study of this kind necessarily depends on the generous aid of a large 

 number of field informants and many specialists representing different areas 

 of expertise. In acknowledging their help, the author does not intend to 

 deflect responsibility for any errors of omission or interpretation, which are 

 his alone. In Micronesia, this study was greatly aided by Dr. Roy Tsuda, 

 Director of the University of Guam Marine Laboratory, and by Miss Emily 

 Johnson, Librarian of the University's Micronesian Area Research Center. 

 Mr. Mike McCoy, District Fisheries Officer, and Messrs. John Lingmar and 

 Francies Yauoligam, Field Services Officers, provided basic information and 

 introductions to local fishermen in the Yap district, without which the gaps 

 in reporting would be even more obvious. Mr. Raphael Uag, Curator of the 

 Yap Museum, provided helpful explanations about Micronesian fishing gear 

 and procedures, as did Dr. Marvin Dean, Chief of Animal Health Services, 

 Pacific Trust Territories. 



Dr. Colin Jack-Hunton, Director of the Museum of the Northern Terri- 

 tory, Australia, and Dr. Brian Cranstone, of the Ethnography Department of 

 the British Museum, London, permitted me access to special materials in the 

 collections under their care, and were most helpful in discussing them. Dr. 

 Ronald Gatty, of New York University, who shared his unpublished records 

 and experience of shark fishing in Fiji and the Gilbert Islands and donated 

 substantial time to translations, provided helpful Pacific contacts and de- 

 tailed discussions of these problems, in which his own continuing interest is 

 strong. My wife, Valorie Hodgson of Framingham State College, assisted in 

 many of the interviews necessary to check the information received and 

 contributed her own insightful reports and photographs, which helped to 

 differentiate fact and fiction. I am especially grateful to fishermen and divers 

 throughout the southwestern Pacific area, who described their methods and 

 observations, so that their valuable insights might be added to the permanent 

 knowledge of another culture. 



