Shark-Eating Men 163 



shark, of strong odor, but, when specially prepared, suitable for food; 

 Hammerhead shark, a crowning dish for dinner; Bonnet-Nosed shark, 

 ranks well up as food; Sandbar shark, most desirable for food; Barndoor 

 skate, excellent for food; Clear-Nose skate or Brier ray, good eating, 

 similar to shrimp; Small Electric ray, flavor deUcious; Large Sting ray, 

 good for food; Sand skate or Butterfly ray, good; Spotted Sting ray, ex- 

 cellent, flavor similar to bluefish; Cow-Nosed ray, flavor similar to scal- 

 lops; Eagle ray, excellent, with the flavor of scallops; Small Devilfish, 

 delicious." 



But the combined efforts of Cole's eulogy of cooked shark, Roose- 

 velt's fervent defense of it— and even sheer patriotism— did not get 

 Americans to eat shark. 



It seems to take something as colossal as a world war to get Ameri- 

 cans even to think about eating shark. In World War II, once again the 

 Bureau of Fisheries called upon the meat-rationed public to build up 

 their protein intake by eating all kinds of fish, including shark. One of 

 the authors. Captain Young, was delegated to catch a batch of sharks to 

 start the nation's second wartime sharks-are-good-for-you campaign. 

 Captain Young recalls, 



I had an order to send a thousand pounds of fresh shark to a New York 

 corporation for distribution to their customers. I went shark fishing on the 

 Gulf of Mexico, off Biloxi, Mississippi, and caught Duskies, Black Tip and 

 Sharp-Nose by hand line from shrimp boats. The shrimp men throw millions 

 of pounds of what they call "trash fish" into the water when they sift through 

 their catches for shrimp. The sharks were abundant. 



When I caught the sharks, I used a trick I knew to make their flesh whiter. 

 I cut their tails off^ as soon as they were hauled aboard. The blood drains out 

 of their bodies through two big arteries that lead to the tail. As soon as we got 

 ashore, I shipped the sharks to New York by express, on dry ice. They arrived 

 in perfect shape, and, I found out later, most of the customers liked what they 

 tasted. 



But, knowing that there was a prejudice against the word "shark," the com- 

 pany decided to sell the fish under the name of "Crayfish." But the government 

 ordered the company to sell the shark as shark, and that was the end of that. 



The camouflaging of shark with another name is a ruse that has been 

 used— and is still being used— in many parts of the world. The British 

 have been eating shark and skate for centuries, at times under disguised 

 names. An anonymous Elizabethan poet, chronicling the fish "that's eata- 

 ble to us," rhapsodizes the herring, cod, mackerel, sole, and whiting; 

 then, in a wretched rhyme, says: 



The haddock, turbet, berb, fish nourishing and strong; 

 The thornback and the scate, provocative among. 



