Shark-Eating Men 175 



west coast of Taiwan, shark fishermen have developed a kind of per- 

 petual-motion system. They catch sharks, use the flesh for food, and 

 then feed the shark offal to cultivated eels, which, in turn, are used as 

 bait to catch more sharks. 



Probably nowhere on earth are sharks consumed as avidly as in Japan, 

 whose annual landings of sharks, skates, and rays are measured in the 

 thousands of tons. The lower grade sharks are made into fish cakes, 

 called kamaboko. About 420,000 tons of kamaboko are produced in 

 Japan each year. Shark is also sold both fresh and canned. Smoked shark, 

 marinated in soya sauce, is one of the canned products of the large 

 Japanese shark fisheries industry.^ This product, sold as smoked shark- 

 meat, is exported, in relatively small quantities, to the United States as a 

 gastronomic oddity. 



The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 

 —UNESCO— has described the virtually untapped fishing resources of 

 the Indian Ocean as one of the most vital food-harvesting areas on 

 earth. Some 726,000,000 people live in the tropical and subtropical regions 

 around the Indian Ocean, and the ver^^ survival of millions of them, a 

 UNESCO report says, depends on the fish in the Indian Ocean. These 

 fish, says UNESCO, appear to be the only readily available food for 

 combating the "prevalence of diseases attributed to protein starva- 

 tion" that are common in India, Ceylon, Indonesia, Malaya, and parts 

 of the east coast of Africa. 



And among the many abundant fish found in the Indian Ocean are 

 sharks. Surveys in the Seychelles Islands, which lie in the western 

 portion of the Indian Ocean, have shown an astounding abundance of 

 sharks, many of which seem to be species peculiar to those isolated 

 islands. Fishing explorations aimed at developing a viable fishery in- 

 dustry in the Seychelles have had shark-catching experiences reminiscent 

 of the tuna long-lining explorations in the Pacific. One expedition, for 

 example, boated 15,287 pounds of various fish— and 24,326 pounds of 

 shark. "It is possible to fish exclusively for sharks, but it is rarely possible 

 [to fish for bony fishes without catching sharks as well," a survey report 

 notes. 



Sharks, skates, and rays are eaten by most nations whose shores are 

 washed by the great Indian Ocean. Indians, for instance, eat shark. On 

 the west coast of India, sharks and rays are a favorite food of all classes. 

 In the eastern coastal districts of Madras, only the very poor eat sharks 

 and rays. Under a government-sponsored program, shark-liver oil is dis- 

 tributed to hospitals and sold at low prices to the public to increase the 

 vitamin A in their diet. 



^ For more about Japanese and Chinese shark-eating customs and recipes, see 

 the Appendix. 



