TIGERS OF THE DEEP 



bathers in all parts of the world — and men were killing 

 sharks. 



On 1 8th February 1928, the largest shark ever caught 

 on rod and line was landed by Mr. H. White- Wickham 

 of London — a gargantuan thresher which he fought for 

 hours at Whangaroa, New Zealand. The Auckland Weekly 

 Mews published a photograph of Mr. White- Wickham 

 standing beside his extraordinary catch. On the fish, 

 figures were painted showing its weight: 832 lb. — 

 nearly seven and a half hundredweights. 



All these accounts — which might be supplemented 

 ad infinitum by others, describing battles with man-killing 

 monsters during those years and since, in the shore- 

 waters of all countries — are concerned with the activities 

 of sharks on the surface. They give us no impression of a 

 harmless fish that might be scared away by splashing 

 motions of the arms and legs. But (as some writers on 

 skin-diving and underwater exploration firmly assert) it 

 may be that the shark's attitude towards man is very 

 diflferent when it meets him several fathoms down, or on 

 the sea-bed itself. 



We have now learned enough of the shark's structure 

 and habits to enable us to examine some of the state- 

 ments made by fishmen regarding this controversial 

 question : Is the shark harmless in the underwater regions 

 if left alone and not attacked by divers ? 



The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes some varieties as 

 ''dangerous" or 'Very dangerous" to man, but — in 

 common with many other reference works — states that 

 the basking shark is "quite harmless unless attacked". 

 Chambers's Encyclopaedia says that some of the larger forms 

 "sometimes devour men who swim incautiously in warm 

 seas" — but does not make it clear whether this applies to 

 surface or underwater swimming. 



Captain Jacques- Yves Cousteau, universally recog- 

 nized as the leading authority on underwater explora- 

 tion and co-inventor of the Aqualung, has definite ideas 



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