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Man Against Shark 



A Great Blue shark {Prionace glauca) is hauled aboard the boat Paula oflF Looe, 

 Cornwall, England. Thousands of sharks— mostly Great Blues— are caught off Looe 

 each year by members of the Shark AngHng Club of Great Britain. 



Courtesy, The Field Magazine 



5,000 sharks— mostly Makos and Great Blues— a year. One Looe sharker 

 in a single day landed 44 Great Blues, whose total weight topped a ton. 

 A champion Looe fisherwoman, Mrs. Hetty Eathorne (weight 108 

 pounds) has caught a record Great Blue (1,671 pounds). She never wears 

 a harness. "I fish only for sport," she says, "and this way it gives the 

 shark a better chance." 



A shark fisherman never knows what he is going to haul in when 

 he hooks a shark. Dr. C. T. Newnham, regional medical officer for the 

 Western Region of the British Transport Commission, for instance, was 

 presented with a maternity case when he landed a shark off Looe. 



"It was noticed on landing that she was 'fat-bellied' [a term used 

 by local fishermen] and also that there was a healing gaff wound towards 

 the tail," Dr. Newnham reports in his account of what he calls a case, 

 not a catch. "Apart from these two observations, there was nothing 

 particularly unusual about the captive. As is customary, the shark was 

 killed by hitting it several times on the head with a truncheon carried 

 for this purpose, and then, when movements ceased, the hook and trace 

 were cut out and the body put under the floorboards of the well of the 

 deck. In an attempt to rid itself of the hook, the shark had obviously 

 tried to vomit, as, when caught, the everted stomach was protruding 

 from the jaws. (This is not an uncommon thing to happen.)" 



