Captain Shark-Killer 83 



meshed in the net. The shark could be cut out of the net, of course. But nets 

 cost money, and, as long as you watch your fingers when you're near the 

 entangled shark's jaws, untangling the net is not as dangerous as, say, working 

 around a buzz saw. 



We clouted the shark with an outsized baseball bat, and sometimes shot him, 

 but we could never be sure he was dead. 



Anyway, in that furious under-running on that first day's haul, we had 

 hardly time to do anything more than swing 'em aboard. We hauled in 22 from 

 that net, all of them big Dusky sharks, and we were lucky there weren't 23, for 

 the boat gunwales were hardly 3 inches above the water when we headed home. 



We never topped that first day's catch. It was a record for a single net. 

 Apparently, a school of sharks had blundered into our net. But it was a great 

 start, and good catches continued. 



Of course, the usual cannibalism deprived us of many a good hide. The 

 Tigers were particularly vicious. When we took in a net with Port Jacksons, 

 Wobbegongs and Tigers, the Tigers would usually be the only whole captives. 



Once, though, we saw evidence that a little 3-foot Port Jackson had out- 

 witted a big, 12-foot Tiger. The Port Jackson shark is an inoffensive shark 

 that feeds on shellfish and has pavement-stone-like plates instead of teeth. Put 

 a Port Jackson and a Tiger in a net, and the life expectancy of the Port Jackson 

 is about 30 seconds. 



Never underestimate the shark, though. And that means any shark. For I 

 know at least one Port Jackson who attacked a Tiger— and survived. 



We found them both in the net. Reconstructing what had happened, we 

 decided that the wily, 3-foot Port Jackson had been netted first. Next came 

 the 12-foot Tiger. He darted for the Port Jackson, but the latter somehow 

 evaded the Tiger's attack. The Tiger was now entangled himself, but he made 

 another lunge for the Port Jackson. As he did, the little Port Jackson, though 

 also enwrapped in the net, grabbed the Tiger as he flashed by. The Port Jackson 

 bit the Tiger in the soft vulnerable flesh near the gill slits. The little shark's 

 pavement-stone teeth clamped on the gills and hung on. 



That's the way they were found when the net was hauled in the next morn- 

 ing. How long the Port Jackson had clung there, we didn't know. But clung 

 he had. Even as the Tiger, still alive, was hauled up, the game little Port Jackson 

 hung on. The Tiger was killed and tossed into the hold. The Port Jackson, 

 exhausted, fell back into the net. No one had the heart to kill him. He was 

 thrown back, and swam away, almost proudly, it seemed. The Tiger, inciden- 

 tally, had two Port Jacksons in his stomach. 



Porpoises were frequently found in our big Australian sharks' stomachs, 

 which made these Aussie monsters somewhat unique, for never before had I 

 seen sharks who made a regular diet of porpoises. Usually, a porpoise does the 

 chasing. And, when a porpoise mother is giving birth, other porpoises will 

 gather around her to protect her from sharks. If a shark comes close, the por- 

 poises will actually charge him and butt him aside. 



[The first porpoise (Bottle-nosed dolphin, Tursiops truncatus) ever born 

 alive in captivity came into the world at Marineland in Florida in 1947. Several 

 Sand-bar or Brown sharks were in the tank at the time, and biologists observing 

 the birth saw protective porpoises butting sharks away from the mother. 



