WAR ON SHARKS

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1932, Page 3

WAR ON SHARKS

HARPOONS USED FROM PLANES. MANY KILLS RECORDED. SYDNEY, October 25. Am intensive war has beeh v declared . by the Diitch, in the East Indies I against their old enemy, tfie', shark, i This is' a. bad shark year .off the-, coasts cf Sumatra and Java, for the tigers of the sea- appear to have bad a general niobiUsanoii in these waters. Increase in the shark population har • caused irisufficibricy of food; supplier in the depths of tlie- ocean wastes, with'the result that sharks, in school, fif’from 20-to 209j"have- invaded the i iiiirbours" of the Archipelago, and, f t most Europecm sailors'wheri in ttepic hi ports at this time of the year pro fit by a swim, the casualties have beer hcavy. One evening’last month in the waters of the Gulf cf Timor seven Dutchmen end eleven Portugese sailors wer killed by sharks. At first it wr.s.supTo/ed that tils liven Lad been sucked - down by currents, but later, it ’ was from nsiti-ve"' sen roes V.thjttl the , tigers of 'the sea had been bnriting. ’ 'Hie Royal Netherlands NaYal Aii Pht'i-ol TiaVe " been detaelirid from their Usual routine duty of .chasing Malay pirates and' grin-runners and ordered to wage v.’.’.r ori tlie sil arlis. r J he Dutch airmen have borrowed ideas from" the. whalers. A harpoon-gun wbrked by air, has been made arid 'equipped' with these, tin aifmen attack the sharks from 150 to 100 feet above the surface of the . wat/r, arid fire a 4ft long, triple-head ed javelin; More than 403 man-eating sharks' have? been accounted for in two months. The attackers' sally fort l every evening r.iid fly at on altitude of ; 1000 ft—th- best for ririder-sea visi liility in the tropics. The sharks travel in schools and, as soon as a school is sighted, the aeroplane's glide down and shower tlioi’’ javelins. - One of the horrors of this shark warfare is that, as soon rs one shark ’i| dispn.tcliVd and sinks, the others • begin to devour the dead monster. It ;is by the undersea senffle, detected from on high, that the airmen aie enabled to number their bag. i ‘The Australian and Brazdian air ■ authorities are sending out their experts to the East Indies to study the irioßiods adopfed there for ' dealing ' with thri'“sli"i'k nicnace, in order tr -apply tlieiq’ t|> tlfpir own slfark-infcsted afeas—the Australian harbours' a nd Rio do Jariierri.