ONR SHARK RESEARCH 653 



standpoint, i.e., those in which no traces of the human remained. In 

 addition, the records were spotty at best; reports of the cause of death or 

 injury were very imprecise and left a great deal to be desired. This was due, 

 at least in part, to psychological pressure on armed forces personnel to list 

 the cause of injury or death as other than due to sharks, to downplay the 

 shark danger and help boost morale. 



As difficult as it is to obtain accurate quantitative information about the 

 direct shark hazard to personnel, it is more difficult to obtain accurate 

 information on the psychological aspects of the shark threat to man in the 

 sea. A workshop of military personnel held in May 1976 to discuss the 

 impact of shark hazards on Navy and Marine Corps operations recommended 

 obtaining such information. In particular, the workshop recommended that 

 information be gathered on incidents involving divers in which sharks directly 

 affected military operations (Zahuranec 1976). As difficult as these data 

 are to obtain, it is imperative that the best possible attempt be made. Only 

 when there is sufficient information of this nature can a shark research 

 program deal accurately with the more acute aspects of the problem. In the 

 meantime, the Navy's shark research program will continue to provide 

 information on shark behavior as well as other aspects of shark biology, since 

 such knowledge can be important to Navy as well as non-Navy personnel. 

 Indeed, probably as long as man is in the sea, for whatever reason, sharks will 

 continue to be dangerous adversaries, but ones whose importance is out of 

 all proportion to their numbers. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



In gathering the background facts for this article, Drs. Sidney R. Galler, 

 Perry W. Gilbert, and Robert F. Mathewson provided a great deal of 

 information. The author thanks them for this help. Special thanks are due to 

 Dr. Gilbert for reviewing the manuscript and for providing the list of Shark 

 Research Panel meetings that appears as the Appendix. Special thanks are 

 also due to the editors of this volume for their enthusiastic encouragement. 



REFERENCES 



Baldridge, H. D. 1974. Shark attack: A program of data reduction and 



analysis. Contribution from the Mote Marine Laboratory 1(2). 

 Gilbert, P. W., ed. 1963. Sharks and survival. D. C. Heath and Co., Boston. 

 Gilbert, P. W., R. F. Mathewson, and D. P. Rail, eds. 1967. Sharks, skates 



and rays. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. 

 Gilbert, P. W. and S. Springer. 1963. Testing shark repellents. Pages 477-494 



in Sharks and survival. Edited by P. W. Gilbert. D. C. Heath and Co., 



Boston. 

 Llano, G. 1955. Airmen against the sea. Research Studies Institute, Maxwell 



Air Force Base, Alabama. 



