Shark-Eating Men 



171 



The cooperative sells the livers to a pharmaceutical manufacturing 

 company which operates a small oil-extraction plant in the village. About 

 2,800 pounds of oil are processed each dav during the shark-catching 

 season, \\hich runs from April to September. Shark meat, for which 

 many African natives have developed a taste, is shipped to the Congo, 

 Ghana, and Mauritius. Dried fins are exported directly to China. Some 

 fishermen make as much as $56 a day catching sharks— and they are 

 caught the hard way, on hand-lines! With the shark came prosperity. 

 Fishermen's tiny cottages gave way to larger, more comfortable homes. 

 Big power boats replaced the traditional cockleshell skifi^s. Electricity 

 and telephones appeared for the first time in most Gansbaai homes. All 

 because of the shark. 



The Pacific Ocean teems with sharks. American fishermen using long- 

 lines to catch Pacific tuna have cursed the thousands of sharks that 

 were caught on hooks intended for tuna. In Australia long-lines are 

 used to catch sharks. 



Out of Melbourne harbor and into Bass Strait, which separates the 

 mainland of Australia from Tasmania, sails a 50-foot boat, especially 



A Imuf Sax^fisli. takfii iitf Maliiieli. Kin\a. is part of the catch wiiich Atrican fishermen 

 hauled in during a regular shark-fisliing voyage. The Sawfish broke through the nets, 

 which are usually strong enough to hold the sharks which make up most of the 

 Malindi catches. The nets are of nylon, which are said to be three times more effective 

 than nets made of cotton. One advantage of nylon, besides its strength, is its tendency 

 to blend with the color of the sea. Cotton nets cannot be used in bright moonlight 

 because they show up and the sharks bypass them. Courtesy, Veld & VM Magazine 



