More Shadows Attack 37 



authorities on life beneath the sea, and has survived many confrontations 

 with sharks, says in his famous book. The Sile?it World:^ "From the 

 data, covering over a hundred encounters with many varieties, I can offer 

 two conclusions: the better acquainted we become with sharks, the less 

 we know them; and one can never tell what a shark is going to do." 



Dr. Gilbert Doukan, a doctor of medicine, and a pioneer in under- 

 water hunting, exploration, and photography, is only a trifle more opti- 

 mistic. Perhaps, he writes in his The World Beneath the Waves,'- the 

 day will come when we will "know which sharks are the 'good' ones, 

 and which are the ones whose aggressive and dangerous nature makes 

 it advisable to give them a wide berth." 



But he adds: "Unfortunately, however, by the time we have suc- 

 ceeded, in the bluish immensity of the water, in recognizing to which 

 type a shark belongs, it may be too late. There are no charitable beings 

 dwelling in the depths of the tropical waters who will considerately 

 erect, in the appropriate regions, notices saying, 'Beware of the sharks.' " 



The enigma of the shark is not left unchallenged. Scientists of shark- 

 menaced shores from Florida to Australia are seeking to unravel the 

 mystery. It is frustrating work. The typical dangerous shark is large, 

 difficult to handle, and not designed for laboratory study. It often lan- 

 guishes in captivity, and whatever secrets of behavior it may reveal in a 

 tank or a pen are muted by its apathy in imprisonment. 



With patience and skill, however, scientists are managing today to 

 keep sharks in captivity and study them. Dr. Eugenie Clark is testing 

 the behavior and the intelligence of large sharks of several species at the 

 Cape Haze Marine Laboratory on Siesta Key, Florida. Recently, Dr. Clark 

 delivered 37 Tiger shark pups by cesarean section. One survived. 

 Thanks to constant, almost maternal care, the shark pup lived for 

 three and a half months while Dr. Clark scrupulously observed it. She 

 hoped to learn when the shark reached maturity— an elementary fact, but 

 one that is not positively known, so scant is our knowledge of sharks. 



One morning Dr. Clark checked her shark pen and found the pup 

 dead. It was killed, she believes, not by natural causes or by another shark, 

 but by a vandal who sneaked into the laboratory compound, somehow 

 caught the little shark, and beat it over the head. 



With the aid of an anesthetic known as M.S. 222, sharks can be 

 captured and subdued, experimented on or examined— and then returned 

 to the sea, unharmed. The anesthetic can knock out a 400-pound shark 

 in 1 minute or less. It is merely squirted into the mouth of the shark 



1 Jacques Yves Cousteau, The Silent World (New York: Harper, 1953). 



- Dr. Gilbert Doukan, The World Beneath the Waves (New York: John de Graff, 



1957). 



