DAHLAK KEBIR, DESERT IN THE SEA Bl 



approaches man almost always from behind, as we ourselves 

 were able to observe. 



Floating is of little use, and running away even less. The 

 only possible way of salvation, and this only if the shark is 

 seen in time, is to swim determinedly towards it, making the 

 deuce of an uproar, splashing hands and feet and giving it no 

 peace, when it starts its concentrated circlings, by sticking 

 persistently at its side. This is easier said than done, but there 

 is no other way out. The idea of fighting a shark with a knife 

 is so idiotic that it barely merits discussion, unless one is 

 referring to one of the innumerable 'calm' small-toothed 

 sharks, preferably sand ones, which lie on the bottom asleep 

 and so can be easily surprised. But the idea that a man can 

 get close enough to give a knife wound to a black-fin or a 

 dusky shark is enough to make anyone who knows them split 

 his sides. 



Furthermore to cut through a shark's skin needs not only 

 a knife as sound as a stone and as sharp as a razor, but also 

 leonine force, and leonine force cannot be exercised under 

 water when the body and therefore the arms, lack their 

 accustomed weight; and shark's-skin is known as the toughest 

 leather in the world. We saw the professional shark fishermen 

 from Yemen working on the beach at Dur Ghella and they 

 took three or four minutes (sweating and groaning with the 

 effort) to open up and gut a six-foot shark. 



The 'yell at the shark' has become famous since the 

 Austrian underwater explorer Hans Hass disclosed its pre- 

 sumed effectiveness. I do not know if he himself really 

 believed in it, or if he honestly attributed his freedom from 

 attack by sharks in the Caribbean to this 'yell'. Speaking 

 from my own experience I found that a shout underwater 

 did not arouse the faintest emotion in sharks, and those 

 experimented on were for the most part the same species 



