52 Shark Against Man 



tification. Shroeder, an outstanding authority on sharks, estimated that 

 the tooth had come from a Great White 12 feet long and weighing 1,100 

 to 1,200 pounds. The Great White, one of the most dangerous species, 

 certainly could have devoured either or both men, yet it appears that 

 the target of its voracity was the only white dory in the area. 



If white attracts sharks, however, it would seem that the chances of 

 survival are slim for the amazing Japanese ama, or "sea woman," who 

 dives for pearls wearing a white jacket, a white skirt, and a white hood. 

 These women believe that white repels sharks and jellyfish. Sometimes 

 the women— and girls, for many an ama is a mere teen-ager— wear 

 brightly colored garments, and wrap white towels around their long, 

 jet-black hair. Their only equipment is a pair of goggles, a container 

 for their catch, and a hooked iron knife to pry the akoya, the pearl- 

 producing oysters, from rocks some 40 feet below the surface. They 

 are ever on the alert for sharks, but, even in their gleaming white cos- 

 tumes, they are rarely attacked. 



The claim that dark-skinned swimmers are immune to shark-attack 

 has proved to be a fallacy many times and in many parts of the world. 

 In the Torres Strait between New Guinea and Australia, for instance, 

 when pearling was a major occupation for natives, attacks averaged three 

 a year. A medical report on the attack experiences of Torres Strait divers 

 noted that "a diver rarely fails to see at least one shark during any day." 

 Sometimes, the shark attacked. After recounting several attacks and 

 near-attacks, the medical report said: "These facts dispel a popular mis- 

 conception that a shark will not attack a human being with colored 

 skin . . . Actually more natives are attacked on the Australian coast each 

 year than whites." 



One Torres Strait pearl diver, a black-skinned native named lona 

 Asai, was diving in 12 feet of water one day when a Tiger shark charged 

 him. The shark dived down on lona, and an instant later lona's head was 

 in the shark's mouth. What happened next can best be told by lona, for, 

 incredibly, he lived to tell this story: 



"When I turned I saw the shark six feet away from me. He opened 

 his mouth. Already I have no chance of escape from him. Then he came 

 and bite me on the head. He felt it was too strong so he swallow my 

 head and put his teeth around my neck. Then he bite me. 



"When I felt his teeth go into my flesh, I put my hands around his 

 head and squeeze his eyes until he let go me and I make for the boat. 

 The captain pulled me into the boat and I fainted. They get some medi- 

 cines from Jervis Island school-teacher." 



It took more than medicines to repair lona, whose story, incidentally, 

 is thoroughly documented by hospital records and photographs. Nearly 

 200 stitches were needed to sew up the two rows of teeth marks around 



