54 Shark Against Man 



Mattapoisett Harbor in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, when a shark sud- 

 denly seized his left leg and pulled him under. A courageous companion, 

 Walter W. Stiles, who was 10 feet away, swam to the youth's aid. When 

 Troy, pummeling the shark with his hands, broke the surface. Stiles 

 was at his side. The shark released Troy, but remained nearby in the 

 bloody water while Stiles supported the youth and managed to get him 

 into a boat. The shark did not charge Troy again, nor did it attempt to 

 molest Stiles. Troy died in a hospital five hours after the attack. 



The tropical sharks that are appearing in temperate waters are prob- 

 ably following food— fishes deviating from normal haunts because of 

 temperature shifts. Gradual, imperceptible changes in the temperature of 

 the sea are apparently breaking down the arbitrary boundaries that once 

 marked off the habitats of tropical, subtropical, and temperate marine 

 life. 



There is now ample evidence that the seas are getting warmer, prob- 

 ably as the result of an apparently global climatic change which can be 

 perceived only by studying accurate, long-kept records. A recent U.S. 

 Fish and Wildlife Service report showed, for instance, that the January 

 sea temperatures near New Haven, Connecticut, have increased three to 

 four degrees Fahrenheit since 1780; winter sea temperatures off Booth- 

 bay Harbor, Maine, have gone up by about two degrees since 1930. 



At the same time, man has been venturing into colder waters. As 

 Dr. Schultz points out in the SRP shark-attack report: "Divers with 

 swim suits do enter colder waters, and three attacks have occurred in 

 waters of 55 degrees along the California coast. We believe the area of 

 the world in which shark attacks occur will be extended as more and 

 more divers enter the domain of the predaceous sharks in temperate and 

 subtemperate latitudes." 



Because of the relatively few attacks on skin-divers, many divers 

 seem to believe that they have a kind of immunity from attack. Some 

 divers have become so contemptuous of the shark that they ride sharks 

 or hang onto their tails. The Shark Research Panel has issued a stern 

 warning that those who cavort with sharks have chosen deadly play- 

 mates. 



"It would seem unnecessary," the SRP's Dr. Gilbert says, "to tell 

 people not to grab the tail of a shark or to try to ride one. Yet, strangely, 

 it is not. There are skin-diving clubs in California whose qualifications 

 for membership require that you first must ride a shark. This we dis- 

 courage." 



The spear-fishermen in the underwater fraternity often unwittingly 

 act as human shark lures. A spear-fisherman kills a fish. The water around 

 him becomes laced with fresh blood. And when a shark flashes toward 

 the exquisitely alluring scent of blood, it will usually charge toward the 



