98 Ma?i Against Shark 



Great Australian Bight, that huge, crescent-shaped curve along the 

 southern coast of the continent. Great schools of fish sweep through 

 the Bight, and, savagely competing for food among them, are innu- 

 merable sharks, including some of the largest found in any sea on earth. 



In 1951, Sir Willoughby Norrie, governor of South Australia, caught 

 a 2,225-pound Great White shark, at that time the largest fish ever 

 landed with rod and reel. Dean was determined to beat Norrie's record, 

 and, in 1952, he did. 



Dean's encounter with his first record shark began at 2 o'clock one 

 morning when his hired boat was riding at anchor in the Bight after a 

 futile, all-day search for sharks big enough for Dean's taste. A banging 

 on the hull of the boat awakened him; he rolled out of his bunk with a 

 flashlight, went on deck, and in the flashlight's beam caught the dorsal 

 and tail fins of the biggest shark he had ever seen. The shark was 

 violently nuzzling the boat, intoxicated by the scent of whale oil dripping 

 from a tank in the stem. (Using whale oil, and an occasional bucketful 

 of steer's blood. Dean lays down an alluring, provocative slick that sharks 

 pick up miles away. They trail his boat, ravenous for the food promised 

 by the savory scent of the wake.) 



All night long the great shark banged noisily against the side of 

 Dean's boat. The maddening scent of food so excited the shark that once 

 it grappled the propeller and shook the boat, as if to awaken the occu- 

 pants to get the meal it yearned for. Soon after dawn. Dean dropped 

 his line off the stern, and the shark took it, racing off 250 yards. The 

 shark writhed and rolled. Once it leaped almost fully out of the water. 

 But, by fighting on the surface instead of sounding, the shark soon tired. 

 It was all over in about 45 minutes. The shark, a Great White, weighed 

 2,333 pounds and was 16 feet long. The world's record belonged to Alf 

 Dean! Less than a year later, he topped his own record by landing a 

 2,372-pound Great White. 



On April 10th, 1955, Dean caught a 1,600-pound shark, lashed it to 

 the side of the boat, and went off looking for something more worth 

 while. Suddenly, a huge shark began to attack the captured 1,600- 

 pounder. Oblivious to Dean, who clouted it with the handle of a gaff, 

 it kept ripping big chunks out of the dead shark. Finally, the mate aboard 

 the boat threw a set of baited hooks to it. The shark lunged for the line, 

 but somehow managed to hook itself in the tail. Dean fought to land 

 the shark, tail-hooked or not. It was impossible. He cut the line. Again, 

 a set of hooks was cast out, and the shark grabbed for the bait, this 

 time hooking itself in the mouth. Dean struggled for half an hour to set 

 the hooks. They tore out, and the shark disappeared. 



The boat had gone about a mile from the spot where the shark first 

 struck. Dean decided to head back to the spot and anchor. As soon as 



