124 Man Against Shark 



but fear of death in the jaws of a shark could not be driven off by 

 brave words. "Reports of shark attacks on members of our combat forces 

 have created a wartime sea-survival problem that cart no longer be 

 neglected," an Army Air Corps bulletin warned. "The possibility of 

 attack is a growing hazard to morale." 



Dr. Harold J. Coolidge, on leave from Harvard to work in Washing- 

 ton on high-level public information problems arising from the war, also 

 believed that worry over shark attacks was having a bad effect on morale 

 both at home and overseas. Coolidge took the problem directly to the 

 White House level and suggested that a scientific investigation be made 

 into the feasibility of a chemical shark repellent. President Roosevelt 

 himself reportedly ordered that the top-priority project be started im- 

 mediately. 



There were grumbles from some military leaders who apparently 

 felt that the diverting of any manpower or money into the shark-re- 

 pellent project was a waste of resources vitally needed for activities 

 more directly concerned with the fighting of the war. Navy officials 

 argued that, since shark attacks were rare, it was a psychological mistake 

 to overemphasize the menace, and make sailors and others even more 

 aware of it. But proponents of the shark repellent won out with the 

 argument that the lessening of anxiety was an important factor in 

 survival, and, if a man in the water knew he had some kind of protection 

 against sharks, he could devote more of his strength and wit to keeping 

 himself alive. 



The job of finding a way to deter shark attacks was handed to W. 

 Douglas Burden, president of the Marine Studios in Florida. Because the 

 war had forced the closing of the Marine Studios, Burden conducted 

 his first experiments at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 

 Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Three Smooth Dogfish (Mustelus cams), 

 each about 3 feet long, were placed in laboratory tanks. They were killed 

 with poisoned food. But this did not have much significance. What was 

 needed was something that would drive sharks away from food. The 

 successors to the first three Dogfish were subjected to supersonics, 

 stink bombs, chemical irritants, and a variety of ink clouds. Nothing 

 worked. 



Seventy-eight different substances— including several poison gases- 

 were tried out before the scientists experimented with one that was 

 literally right under their noses. It was nothing more than "essence of 

 dead shark." As one of the authors and other shark fishermen long be- 

 fore had discovered, if they left sharks hanging on their hooks long 

 enough for the bodies to decompose, live sharks avoided their odorous 

 brethren. The Woods Hole sharks also turned tail when the scientists 

 confronted them with an offering of very dead shark meat. 



