100 Man Against Shark 



torment, stomach cramps. Still in the bolted-down tractor seat he used 

 for his fishing chair and still fighting the shark, he relieved the cramps 

 somewhat by urinating in a can, a feat he never could figure out how 

 he performed. 



After five and a half hours, Dean knew he could hold out no longer. 

 But some tremor in the line, some mysterious signal he felt almost 

 intuitively, told him that Barnacle Lil was tiring. Once more, with aching 

 hands, he began to reel in. He got her to the boat, and the boatman 

 began pulling up the leader. About 10 feet of the 30-foot leader were in 

 the boat when Barnacle Lil made her last, wild try for freedom. She 

 dove, straight down. The leader, snagged on the boat's pipe railing, 

 followed the shark down and, in a flash, tore out 7 feet of railing, then 

 snapped. The indomitable Barnacle Lil was free. 



Several big-game fishermen had sighted and pursued her before 

 Dean had his frustrating affair with her; others have since given chase, 

 but she has not yet been vanquished. 



There are many stories of sharks spoiling world's record catches of 

 other game fish by gnawing on the carcass as the proud fisherman 

 sails home with his prize attached to his boat. By the time the fish is 

 strung up to be officially weighed, it has lost several pounds. Often this 

 loss to ravening sharks has been enough to make a chewed-up also-ran 

 out of a record-breaking fish. The most poignant story of a shark's 

 theft of a record is told by Dolly Dyer, of Australia, undisputed champion 

 woman shark fisherman. Mrs. Dyer and her husband Robert, between 

 them, currently hold 16 world shark-catching records, attested by the 

 International Game Fish Association. 



Mrs. Dyer landed a promising-looking Tiger shark a few years ago. 

 To her expert eye, it looked to be at least 1,400 pounds. And it was 

 there, right alongside the boat. Sharks did come to gnaw on it, but she 

 successfully warded them off by personally clouting them on the snout 

 with a gaff handle. She lost no precious poundage to them. A pinnacle 

 record— the largest Tiger then ever taken by rod and reel by man or 

 woman— seemed to be hers as her boat reached the dock. But, shortly 

 before the dying Tiger was to be weighed to establish the record, it 

 played a dirty trick on her. It gave birth to 40 pups. The loss of her 

 progeny transformed the mother Tiger into an ordinary, non-record- 

 breaking shark. 



Australia is not the only place on earth where record-making sharks 

 are caught. Seventeen current shark records were achieved in the waters 

 off Montauk, Long Island. Blue, Porbeagle, and Mako sharks abound 

 there, and many of them are potential record-breakers. 



Long Island's shark fishermen say that the best times for catching 

 the monsters are the days— and nights— around the full of the moon. 



