chapter 5 



Anti-Shark Warfare 



Christmas was 12 days away. The sound 

 of carols was wafted among the shoppers 

 along the streets of town. Choirs were rehearsing for their Christmas 

 Eve concerts. And children were playing, not in snow, but in the surf. 

 For this was Christmas time in Hawaii, and the temperature hovered at 

 around 80 degrees. 



It was Saturday, December 13, 1958, and 15-year-old Billy Weaver 

 and five pals were in the surf off Lanikai, a long, wide stretch of beach 

 east of Honolulu. 



"All of us surfed for a while," one of the boys, Terry Oakland, aged 

 14, said later. "Billy was on an air mat. We had just caught a wave, all 

 except Billy, and rode a short distance. We were about 50 yards from 

 Billy when we saw him slide off his mat into the water." 



Terry said he was within reach of Billy before he realized that his 

 pal was not playing a prank. Billy was being pulled under by a shark. 

 As Terry neared him, he heard Billy scream: "Help!" 



Billy bobbed to the surface. "There was blood all in the water and his 

 leg was cut off," Terry said. 



The boys tried to keep Billy afloat and get him ashore. But he slipped 

 from their grasp and, as he sank beneath the water again, they saw a 

 shark move in toward him. 



The boys rushed ashore and summoned help. Soon, boats were 

 swarming around the waters of Lanikai searching for Billy's body— and 

 a shark. The searchers found both. A shark nearly 20 feet long appeared 

 among the boats. And, wedged in a hole in the reef off the beach, about 

 7 feet beneath the surface, was Billy's body, the right leg gone up to the 

 knee. 



The next day, Sunday, Lanikai beach gleamed under a bright sun. 

 The sea was smooth. But there were no water-skiers on it. There was 

 a gentle breeze. But no one was sailing. The water was clear. But no 

 one was skin-diving or surfing. "We'll wait about three weeks," a teen- 

 ager on the nearly deserted beach said. "Then, if nothing has happened, 

 we'll start surfing again." 



There was no panic, for Hawaiians have learned to live with sharks. 

 Though sharks were no novelty in Hawaii, a shark attack was. Since 



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