42 Shark Against Man 



theory in Australia. After reading a newspaper report that dogs were 

 being attacked by sharks in George's River near Sydney, Coppleson 

 suspected that a rogue shark was in the area. He became convinced 

 when a 13-year-old boy was killed by a shark at North Brighton Beach, 

 not far from George's River. The fatal attack occurred on January 23 rd, 

 1940. That day Coppleson wrote a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, 

 warning that a man-eating shark was in the area and might strike again. 

 Eleven days after his letter was published, a man was killed by a shark 

 400 yards from the scene of the first attack. 



Several cases may give weight to the rogue-shark theory. The five 

 attacks in New Jersey in 1916 conceivably could have been the work of 

 a single shark. In 1931, three persons were attacked— two of them fatally 

 —within nine days in the waters around Havana, and a solitary shark 

 was blamed. Probably the most damning indictment of a rogue shark 

 occurred in 1899 in Port Said, the bustling seaport at the Mediterranean 

 end of the Suez Canal. 



Dr. William Bryce Orme, the port medical officer, reported that about 

 8:30 on the morning of August 8th, 1899, a 13-year-old Arab boy was 

 brought into the hospital. He had been bitten by a shark. An hour later, 

 a 19-year-old boy was brought in, an arm and a hand torn by a shark. 

 At 11:30 A.M., a 9-year-old boy was admitted. Part of his back had been 

 ripped away by a shark. "None was bathing at the same place or the 

 same time," Dr. Orme reported. "Many people have expressed the opin- 

 ion it must have been one shark which bit all three boys and I think this 

 very likely." 



Although it is possible that a single shark may be responsible for more 

 than one attack within a short period of time or within a short span of 

 coast, the rogue-shark theory cannot explain all shark attacks. In fact, 

 nothing seems to! 



Every apparent key to the why of shark attacks unlocks one part of 

 the mystery only to reveal another. Conditions that seem to trigger 

 some attacks do not trigger others. Every statement advanced to cover 

 a number of attacks has to be jettisoned when exception after exception 

 is found to it. Here are three categorical statements often made about 

 shark attacks— and here are the inevitable contradictions: 



Only large sharks attack men: On February 10th, 1955, while on 

 the bottom of Trinidad Bay, near Trinidad, California, John Adams, a 

 professional diver, was attacked by a hitherto "harmless" Leopard shark 

 (Triakis semifasciata). It was 3 feet long. This is but one of several cases 

 of small sharks attacking men. 



Sluggish, bottom-divelling sharks do not attack men: Two of the 

 Florida attacks mentioned earlier were made by Nurse sharks (not to 

 be confused with the Australian Gray Nurse), sluggish, bottom-dwelling 



