Show M 40 all am XI Z Y N S w NIM ji rag wal rolt M w A four hundred pound shark prepared by national So society cloty was washington h lugt on D C 0 korv service ce the much feared d denizens SHARKS of warm seas bens now are e eagerly ag e aly S sought 0 aught along the eastern coast of australia for they yield 20 commodities to commerce the cry shark sends the bathers at sidney scurrying to safety but not far north at pindimar Pin lmar dimar a sleepy village on the shores of port stephens stephe us which Is the headquarters of the growling growing shark fishing industry it la Is good news founded several years ago the shark industry of australia has at last reached the commercial stage like the rabbit the snake the lizard th thea crocodile and the alligator the sh shark ark has attained this status mainly through h the whims of milady fashion the world over she demanded something new in footwear and bags and she has it in sharkskin several years ago a trading company in england sent four experts 0 out ut to australia to specialize in sharks shark catching and shark treatment they were the specialist nucleus of marine industries ltd the australian offshoot of the english company after investigation the quartette chose pindimar Pin lmar dimar as the scene of their operations it had and has the first essential sharks thousands of them all kinds and varieties all sorts and sizes and all within a few miles of the shore the devil and the demon spec specially lally built motor boats were put into service staunch little craft they were proving themselves so with the heaviest of freights and in any weather the first attack was launched at the entrance to the port a stretch of water three quarters of a mile wide the nets were unlike any used before in australia they were approximately 1000 feet long about 16 feet deep of an eight inch mesh and they were leaded and anchored to the bottom with glass buoys to hold them upright on the surface marking the anchors that helped secure the net jefto to the bottom and at the same time holding it steady were large drums usually the nets are set in the afternoon and raised the next morning no HO lack of sharks when the first net set was raised the shark fishers discovered that for once at least the local fisherman had told the truth there were sharks there in abundance all sorts and sizes 1 gray nurses whalers chalers wh alers tigers school sharks blue pointers hammerheads hammer heads carpets begones be gongs shovel noses dummies gummies gum mies angels pd and port jacksons the shark learned too that sharks were really stupid an eggcup egg cup would have covered the brain of the biggest shark an 18 footer this lack of intelligence Is demonstrated by the fact that once a shark runs into the mesh of the net once he even touches it his doom la Is more or less sealed though he may sense its dangerous potentialities he will not retreat he presses ahead and as he does so eo those thin brown cords get tangled more and more securely around his gills then he Is there to stay the devil and the demon are each manned by a crew of two and a half men two very strong men and a lad on the job of raising the net the skipper la Is at the tiller right up one chap his legs braced against a little football foo trall hauls and a little farther along the deck taking the strain Is the lad hand overhand they heave and pull until at last the for raid man calls a halt here comes one he says and below a mass can be seen tangled in the net thrashing and writhing then the skipper leaves the tiller and tends lends his weight it Is a mans job V for or even without the catch to increase its weight a shark net when wet tips the beam at half a ton at last that part martof of the net which holds the shark Is pulled to the surface then for daring speed of hand and sureness sur enesa of foot there Is little to equal a trained shark fisher the forward hand leans over and grasps the tha tall of the struggling gling monster no matter what the sharks size aze weight and temper that tall must ni be hitched and when the shark b boat oat Is snipping shipping green seas and a savage 16 15 footer la Is venting his bis rage on the net with the forward hand hn ing only a tiny to give him stance and grip then the ordinary angler comes to a bation of the difference between fishing for sport and netting for sharks getting him out of the net nel the slin sharks head Is tangled in n the net his tall securely noosed koosed while the forward hand Is fixing the noose the bahas lahas swung out the derrick arm thi tall loop to Is linked up the lad works the windlass and shark and net are hoisted into the air follows another hazardous opera tion extricating the shark from the net the mesh Is wound round and rou round nd and fastened about his gills and quite possibly too his fins and tall are entangled with infinite patience and the speed of long experience the fishers pull the net clear clea r pull it clear from razor edged teeth thrashing tall and madly squirming body until at last the shark Is clear of the net and hanging by its tall in each shark boat Is an outsize in baseball bats or at least what looks like a baseball bat only it Is rougher and very much heavier there Is also a revolver of large call caliber ber with one ona of these weapons an anesthetic Is administered to the captive either the bat thuds with every ounce of the wl elders weight on the nose of the shark the nose being the equivalent of the point of the human jaw or the revolver does the job another way on the dock the shark surgeon Is in waiting when he be dons his bloodstained apron bares his muscular arms and delicately tests the keenness of his big collection of knives the great fish Is headed for a sharks equivalent of the hereafter parts that aro are utilized the salvaged portions of a shark la in order of value are the hide the liver the fins and the stomach bag contrary to prevailing opinion the teeth are valueless it Is generally believed that sharks teeth pass as currency in many of the south sea islands but although teeth ranging from the tha razor edged fangs of the tiger to the ivory stilettos tos of the gray nurse have been hawked throughout islands they have never found a market to revert to the commercialization first the shark Js Is killed no stunning or near killing this time next the carcass Is washed and the surgeon sets about cutting away the fins and begins skinning this Is a most delicate job for one false cut and the value valna of the bide Is materially lessened what makes the cutting so difficult Is the toughness of the hide bide it to Is rough and thick and stubborn a veritable piscatorial lal coat of mall mail and each cut plays havoc with the skinning knife so much so eo th that after six incisions hone or oilstone must be brought into play however in a few minutes the sharks clothes look like ilka a cubist crossword cross word puzzle then it Is tug and pull until the hide bide Is off after shark and hide have parted company the latter Is bea beamed meV the flesh Is cle cleared a red away from the inner side beaming completed the hide bide to la closely inspected if any parts are faulty they are cut away and then it goes to the shed for its first ebat coat of brine A week later it Is given another coat and two weeks later a third it Is then ready for the tanner the tanner as a matter of fact la Is the man who has made shark fishing a feasible and profitable proposition until recent years although it had been proved that sharkskin was waa among the bost durable of leathers athera le it was nol found possible to treat it commercially with any great degree of success but new methods have developed ve loped it Is now possible so to soften the toughest hide that it may be put to practically every purpose for which the best bullock leather la Is used it Is also possible now to retain not only the markings that make sharli sharkskin skin so distinctive but also its remarkable qualities of durability at present the most articles manufactured from shark sharkskin ticla are footwear handbags cases and luggage the hide of the carpet shark with its distinctively mottled Is used for exclusive feminine footwear and pocketbooks oil from the big liver once you have seen sharks liver you can understand why the tha shark Is such a bad tempered fellow he la Is probably the liver champion of the world that Is in point of size seemingly he specializes in big livers for they put ills his other organs to shame imars record in this respect Is that of a 15 foot tiger w who ho had bad a liver live r 13 feet long weighing fi pounds and other sharks are proportionately equipped this dreadful looking organ soon boon loses its entity or whatever is the anatomical equi equivalent valen t it Is dumped into a blk big container and cooked heat breaks down the oil cells and the resulting product Is shark liver oil the tha nearest blood relation to cod ilter oll if anything it smell w worse orse but physicians say bay that its medicinal qualities ire fire the same the liver referred to in its liquid medicinal state yielded 16 gallons |