652 RETROSPECT 



Bahamas. It resulted in the publication of Sharks, Skates and Rays, edited by 

 Perry W. Gilbert, Robert F. Mathewson, and David P. Rail (1967). In 

 November 1975 a conference entitled "Sharks and Man: A Perspective" was 

 held at Orlando, Florida, under the auspices of the Florida Sea Grant 

 Program and cosponsored by the Florida Department of Natural Resources, 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, and ONR. Then, in May 1976, a 

 symposium on elasmobranch biology, partly sponsored by ONR, was held as 

 part of the annual meeting of the American Society of Zoologists. The 

 papers appeared in a dedicated volume of the American Zoologist (Spring 

 1977, Vol. 17, No. 2). 



The shark research program has evolved since the 1958 New Orleans 

 meeting but has remained faithful to the recommendations of the Shark 

 Panel that grew out of that meeting. As knowledge of sharks has increased, 

 such research areas as taxonomy have been deemphasized. 



However, a major area of continuing investigation is shark behavior, since 

 progress here has been not nearly as great. While several recent studies on the 

 behavior of individual species indicate that shark behavior, like that of other 

 animals, can be quite predictable, understanding their behavior depends on 

 understanding their sensory capabilities. Consequently, the shark research 

 program over the past several years has emphasized the sensory biology of 

 sharks— their vision, hearing, chemoreception and sensitivity to weak electric 

 fields. From these studies has come a greater appreciation of why sharks 

 have been such successful predators for so long. These and other findings 

 were discussed at a 1974 conference on shark research supported by ONR 

 and summarized in the report of the conference (Zahuranec 1975). 



An understanding of the remarkable adaptions of sharks has also made 

 clearer why "Shark Chaser" was not as effective as desired. As a result, 

 "Shark Chaser" is no longer issued as survival gear to Air Force and Navy 

 airmen. Ultimately, it will be removed from the standard military 

 specification lists. In the Navy, the organization that has charge of survival at 

 sea for airmen is the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). The recent 

 emphasis in NAVAIR seems to be toward keeping personnel out of the water 

 in one-man life rafts as a means of reducing the shark hazard. This not only 

 alleviates much of the threat of shark attacks but also greatly reduces heat 

 loss. 



However, the most important question the Navy must next resolve is 

 "How much danger do sharks actually pose to Navy personnel?" The 

 question has been asked many times in many forms for many years, and has 

 never been answered adequately. The usual brief answer is "Sharks are more 

 important psychologically than physically." That is, the fear of sharks is 

 much more important than the actual damage they do to humans. Probably 

 the most complete attempt to quantify the direct danger that sharks posed 

 to military personnel was a post facto analysis of World War II records 

 conducted by George Llano (1955). He found that out of nearly 2000 

 personnel who found themselves in the sea, in only about 10 cases were 

 sharks involved in injuries or deaths. Of course, Llano pointed out, there 

 might be no report at all of those incidents most successful from the shark's 



