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Shark Against Man 



Thirteen-year-old King Scherer displays a 28-inch Nurse shark { Ginglymostoma cir- 

 ratum) which ripped his arm when he tried to grab its tail while he was skin-diving 

 off Delray Beach, Florida. Despite the wound, he towed the shark to shore. Nurse 

 sharks have long been classified as "harmless," despite the fact that they have often 

 viciously, though not fatally, attacked swimmers. United Press International Photo 



year-old aspiring skin-diver, was playing with his 12-year-old brother 

 in about 3 feet of water 10 feet from shore. He and his brother were 

 wearing green face masks and green flippers. They were alone in the 

 water. The boys' father and mother, an uncle and an aunt, were sitting 

 near the water's edge. 



No one saw the shark glide into the water near the boys. When 

 Douglas screamed and was pulled under, his brother rushed to him, and, 

 in rapidly reddening water, supported his brother's head. Douglas' par- 

 ents, aunt, and uncle ran into the shallow water. They saw the shark 

 striking again and again at Douglas' left leg. So shallow was the water 

 that the shark's head, clamped to the boy's thigh, broke the surface. Doug- 

 las struck at the shark with his left hand. Slashed by the shark's teeth, 

 his hand began to bleed. The boy's father pulled the shark by the tail, 

 trying desperately to tear it from his son. Douglas' uncle held the boy 

 by the shoulders and tugged against the shark. Douglas' brother was 

 scratched, apparently by the shark's hide, as he held his brother's body. 

 Unable to wrest Douglas from his family's grasp, and partially exposed 



