Anti-Shark Warfare 117 



ernment officials met to plan an attack on the sharks that menaced the 

 island of Oahu. The plan called for the extermination of the sharks. 

 A research vessel was sent to Lanikai two days after Billy was killed. 

 Three Tiger sharks-one 12 feet long and weighing 800 pounds-were 

 caught, along with two Sand sharks. That was only the beginning. A 

 Billy Weaver Shark Control Fund was started to finance the catching 

 and destruction of sharks menacing the inshore waters. Solicitors went 

 from house to house on Oahu to raise funds. As an added inducement 

 to the shark hunt, a merchant offered a $20 bounty for any shark caught 

 in Oahu's inshore waters, and a jewelry company said it would pay 25 

 cents for each shark tooth a hunter brought in. 



Under the chairmanship of Kenneth M. Young (a nephew of one 

 of the authors, Captain Young), $27,476 was raised. The money was 

 used for the chartering of a boat, the Holokahana, which was to make 

 circuits of Oahu, killing as many sharks as possible, until the money 

 ran out. Each shark was to be examined by a marine biologist. The 

 shark-killing was not inspired by vengeance. Not only would the shark- 

 catching produce new information about sharks, it was also hoped that 

 the pressure of constant fishing would cut down the population of 

 sharks around Oahu. 



Holokahana means "hard worker" in Hawaiian, and the boat lived up 

 to its name. On its shakedown cruise, it caught 63 sharks in 48 hours. 

 The sharks were caught with specially designed shark lines— a main 

 line of half-inch manila rope about a half-mile long, from which were 

 suspended 24 hooks. The line was anchored at each end and buoyed by 

 floats to prevent the hooks from fouling on the bottom. Three such lines 

 were laid parallel with the shore, left overnight, and then hauled up. 



The skipper of the Holokahana was Fred Inouye, vice president of 

 Hawaii Marineland and a veteran sharker who had 5,000 kills to his 

 credit when he took the shark-hunting Holokahana on its four circuits 

 of Oahu. During the year-long campaign, 697 sharks and 641 unborn 

 pups were captured and destroyed. One Tiger (Galeocerdo cuvieri) was 

 carrying 57 pups when she was caught. At least nine species were taken— 

 including a Six Gilled shark (Hexanchus sp.), a species which had never 

 before been recorded in Hawaiian waters. Also caught was a Bramble 

 shark (Echinorhinus sp.), the second ever caught in those waters. The 

 first had been reported 30 years before. 



The hard work of the Holokahana showed that constant fishing pro- 

 vides some defense against sharks. On each trip around Oahu, the 

 Holokahana found fewer sharks. But it is expensive— it cost about 

 $2,200 a month in Oahu, and that is only one of Hawaii's eight major 

 islands. 



A war of annihilation cannot go on forever, and if it stops, the sharks 



