Anti-Shark Warfare 121 



In November, 1961, John Hicks, a skin-diver turned inventor, dem- 

 onstrated a "shark-shocker" in the shark channel of the Miami Sea- 

 quarium. Witnesses reported that 40 to 50 sharks in the channel rapidly 

 swam away from a dangled chunk of fish when Hicks switched on his 

 electronic gadget in the water. Hicks said he and his twin brother, 

 Robert, had spent 6 years developing the shocker, one version of which 

 is contained in an 11 -ounce package. He said he hoped to sell the device 

 to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for use by astro- 

 nauts. Representatives of the space agency witnessed the demonstration, 

 which ended when a big shark of unidentified species nearly capsized 

 Hicks' one-man life-raft with its tail as it rushed away from the raft. 

 Hicks said he had planned to leap into the channel in a rubber suit to 

 demonstrate the device, but Seaquarium officials refused to give him 

 permission, which is a pity, because it looked quite effective. 



It was August, 1960, when John Brodeur was attacked by a shark in 

 waist-deep water off a resort hotel beach at Sea Girt, New Jersey. One 

 of Brodeur's legs was so badly mauled that it had to be amputated. A 

 week after the attack, with shark-panic still gripping New Jersey and 

 most of the eastern seaboard, the proprietor of the resort hotel announced 

 that he was going to keep sharks away from his beach with a "bubble 

 fence." The fence consisted of a perforated pipe laid on the ocean floor 

 between two jetties that jutted out 250 feet from the hotel beach, where 

 the attack on Brodeur had occurred. Compressed air was pumped through 

 the pipe, causing a curtain of bubbles to rise from the holes. The in- 

 ventor of the bubble fence was said to have boasted that "sharks are 

 so terrified by the 'shark fence' they will not even cross it to get a juicy 

 steak." 



The fence was said to have been tested against "60 large sharks" 

 which "refused to crash past the barrier to reach food on the other 

 side." Resort owners saw the bubble fence as the long-awaited answer 

 to how to keep sharks from coming to ocean beaches, and how to keep 

 bathers from staying away. 



Some people were unconvinced by the "tests" of the bubble fence. 

 One of these skeptics was the Shark Research Panel's chairman. Dr. 

 Gilbert. He noted that reports of the tests did not mention the species 

 of sharks that were reputedly repelled, their length, the distance of the 

 bubble curtain from the wall of the aquarium where the test was con- 

 ducted, or the time of day or night when the tests were held. 



Gilbert decided to test the bubble fence himself in the special shark 

 pens at the Lerncr A4arine Laboratory on Bimini Island in the Bahamas. 

 Two pens were built with funds provided by the Office of Naval Re- 

 search. Each is about 40 by 8 feet. They arc next to a dock at the 

 laboratory. At high tide, the water in them is 7 feet deep. 



