The Sharks— Part One 



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for, after all, there had never been even a suspicion that the sluggish 

 Nurse shark would attack a man. 



Never before our day, however, have so many skin-divers been in the 

 underwater world, tweaking the tails of "harmless" sharks and even 

 trying to ride them. In Florida and West Indies waters, the Nurse shark 

 is encountered by skin-divers more often than any other shark. And 

 because of its benign reputation, divers have been overly familiar with it. 



At least 12 known attacks— usually savage gouges on the hand or the 

 leg— have been positively traced to the Nurse shark in recent years. 



Wobbegong (Orectolobus maculatus) . 



Courtesy, Sydney and Melbourne Publishing Co. from 

 The Fishes of Australia by G. P. Whitley, 1940. After MuUer and Henle 



Practically all of the attacks were provoked. None was fatal but all have 

 been painful, and several have resulted in severe injuries. 



A typical incident occurred in 1958 off Miami Beach, Florida, when 

 skin-diver John Bowers grabbed the tail of a 5-foot Nurse, hoping to 

 hitch a tow for a thrilling underwater ride. Bowers got no tow. Instead, 

 the shark turned on him and seized his right thigh so tenaciously that 

 it would not release its grip even after another skin-diver fired a spear- 

 gun at it. The spear went right through the shark, apparently without 

 disturbing it. Bowers was helped into a boat, the shark still clinging to 

 him. It took 10 minutes to pry loose the shark's jaws. 



At least seven of the attacks occurred in Florida waters. Nurses which 

 have bitten divers ranged in size from 18 inches to 9 feet. (Nurse 

 sharks grow to a fair size: lengths of 10 to 12 feet are not unusual. A 

 Nurse Sy^ feet long weighs from 3 30 to 370 pounds.) 



In Australia, the Orectolobidae are represented by several kinds of 

 beautifully colored sharks, all usually called Wobbegongs, the aborigines' 

 name for one of the species. The coloring is as practical as it is beautiful, 

 for it blends in with the rocks and the weeds of the sea bottom, where 

 the Wobbegong lies, well camouflaged. A fringe of fleshy barbels or 



