More Shadows Attack 55 



scent with a lust for any food in sight. Often the shark will snatch the 

 catch off the spearman's weapon, or, as has happened, right off the line he 

 has strung the fish on and tied around his waist. 



Sometimes, rushing past the speared fish, the shark selects for its 

 meal the spearman himself. Leniord Higgins, an Australian spearman, 

 was towing a large catch of fish one day on a line 15 feet long. This is a 

 safety measure, for the belief is that a shark will grab the fish and, while 

 it is devouring the fish, the man can drop the hne and get out of the water. 



But the shark that found Higgins that day ignored the catch and 

 rushed for him, hitting him with such force that, wedged in the shark's 

 maw, he was carried 6 feet beneath the surface. Higgins screamed. The 

 shark let him go, and disappeared as silently as he had appeared. An 

 18-inch wound ripped in his body, Higgins struggled to shore. He 

 survived. He was not eaten, he believed, because the shark lunged for 

 him so avidly that Higgins' body was jammed, edgewise, deep into the 

 shark's mouth, and the shark was unable to snap its jaws shut. 



The shark itself has become the prey for skin-divers who seek out 

 and fight it as big-game hunters track down and kill the lion and tiger. 



Two Australian spear-fishermen use what they call a "death needle" 

 for their shark hunting. The men, Benn Cropp and Ron Taylor, claim 

 to have killed as many as 50 sharks in a week-end with their needles, 

 which are loaded with strychnine nitrate. 



"We shot and killed all types of shark— Blue Pointers, Gray Nurses, 

 Hammerheads, Tigers, and Whalers," Cropp said in an interview. "Once 

 the needle struck, it was curtains for them." 



The needle filled with the strychnine nitrate is attached to the point 

 of a spear-gun projectile in such a way that, when the spear enters the 

 shark, the needle forces the poison deeper into the prey's body. The 

 men said that the poison could kill a shark in 30 seconds. 



Another shark hunter is Scott Slaughter, a former commercial spear- 

 fisherman who became a Navy frogman. Slaughter's shark-killing career 

 began off Key West, Florida, where he was spear-fishing for snappers 

 and groupers. With a big snapper writhing on the end of his spear. 

 Slaughter started for the surface. Suddenly, a shark swished across 

 his legs, darted for the speared fish, and ripped off all but its head. Then 

 still hungry, the shark whirled toward Slaughter. 



The shark charged just as Slaughter reached the surface, near his boat. 

 Like a fencer, he thrust his spear toward the shark. It gobbled down the 

 last morsel of the snapper as Slaughter clambered into the boat. Mo- 

 ments later, he jumped into the water again. In one hand he held his 

 spear, on which was impaled a 40-pound grouper he had caught pre- 

 viously. In his other hand was a metal tube about 6 feet long. 



Using the grouper as a lure. Slaughter brought the shark closer to 



