Historical Knowledge of Sharks: Ancient Science, Earliest American Encounters, and American Science, Fisheries, and Utilization

JOSÉ I. CASTRO

Ancient Science and History fi shes acquired by observation. The present in the female. The dogfi shes il- “Historia Animalium” is a compilation lustrate this: it is a difference found in In western civilization, the knowl- of observations on animal anatomy, de- all such fi shes” (Aristotle, 1970:109). edge of the elasmobranch or selachian velopment and behavior. The “Genera- Similarly, Aristotle was the fi rst fi shes (sharks and rays) begins with tion of Animals” is the fi rst systematic to understand that in many elasmo- Aristotle (384–322 B.C.). Two of his treatise on animal reproduction and branchs, the embryos are fi rst nour- extant works, the “Historia Anima- embryology. Aristotle used the names ished by yolk stored in a yolk sac, and lium” (Aristotle, 1970) and the “Gen- of fi shes given to them by fi shermen. afterwards by a placenta formed be- eration of Animals” (Aristotle, 1979), This and the lack of illustrations in his tween mother and offspring. “Selachia both written about 330 B.C., dem- works often make it diffi cult to ascer- and vipers, though they bring forth onstrate knowledge of elasmobranch tain the species involved. their young alive externally, fi rst of all Aristotle was the fi rst to point out, produce eggs internally” (Aristotle, in the “Historia Animalium,” the 1979:31). “The smooth dogfi sh…the main anatomical difference between young are produced with the umbili- José I. Castro is with the Protected Resources Division, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, male and female elasmobranchs, male cal cord attached to the uterus, so that National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, 263 claspers: “In some selachia the male as the substance of the egg gets used 13th Ave South, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701 differs from the female in having two up the embryo’s condition appears to ([email protected]). appendages hanging down near the be similar to what is found in quadru- doi: dx.doi.org/10.7755/MFR.75.4.1 residual vent, whereas these are not peds” (Aristotle, 1970:261).

ABSTRACT—In western civilization, the sance, and the introduction of the Linnaean started to process sea animals (primar- knowledge of the elasmobranch or sela- System of Nomenclature in 1735 marks the ily sharks) into leather, oil, fertilizer, fi ns, chian fi shes (sharks and rays) begins with beginning of modern ichthyology. However, etc. The Ocean Leather Company enjoyed Aristotle (384–322 B.C.). Two of his ex- the fi rst major work on sharks would not a monopoly on the shark leather industry tant works, the “Historia Animalium” and appear until the early nineteenth century. for several decades. In 1937, the liver of the “Generation of Animals,” both written Knowledge acquired about sea animals the Soupfi n Shark, Galeorhinus galeus, was about 330 B.C., demonstrate knowledge of usually follows their economic importance found to be a rich source of vitamin A, and elasmobranch fi shes acquired by observa- and exploitation, and this was also true because the outbreak of World War II in tion. Roman writers of works on natural his- with sharks. The fi rst to learn about sharks 1938 interrupted the shipping of vitamin A tory, such as Aelian and Pliny, who followed in North America were the native fi shermen from European sources, an intensive shark Aristotle, were compilers of available infor- who learned how, when, and where to catch fi shery soon developed along the U.S. West mation. Their contribution was that they them for food or for their oils. The early nat- Coast. By 1939 the American shark leather prevented the Greek knowledge from being uralists in America studied the land animals fi shery had transformed into the shark liver lost, but they added few original observa- and plants; they had little interest in sharks. oil fi shery of the early 1940’s, encompassing tions. The fall of Rome, around 476 A.D., When faunistic works on fi shes started to ap- both coasts. By the late 1940’s, these fi sh- brought a period of economic regression pear, naturalists just enumerated the species eries were depleted because of overfi shing and political chaos. These in turn brought of sharks that they could discern. Through- and fi shing in the nursery areas. Synthetic intellectual thought to a standstill for near- out the U.S. colonial period, sharks were vitamin A appeared on the market in 1950, ly one thousand years, the period known seldom utilized for food, although their liver causing the fi shery to be discontinued. Dur- as the Dark Ages. It would not be until the oil or skins were often utilized. Throughout ing World War II, shark attacks on the sur- middle of the sixteenth century, well into the nineteenth century, the Spiny Dogfi sh, vivors of sunken ships and downed aviators the Renaissance, that knowledge of elasmo- Squalus acanthias, was the only shark spe- engendered the search for a shark repellent. branchs would advance again. The works of cies utilized in a large scale on both coasts. This led to research aimed at understand- Belon, Salviani, Rondelet, and Steno mark It was fi shed for its liver oil, which was used ing shark behavior and the sensory biol- the beginnings of ichthyology, including the as a lubricant, and for lighting and tanning, ogy of sharks. From the late 1950’s to the study of sharks and rays. and for its skin which was used as an abra- 1980’s, funding from the Offi ce of Naval Re- The knowledge of sharks and rays in- sive. During the early part of the twentieth search was responsible for most of what was creased slowly during and after the Renais- century, the Ocean Leather Company was learned about the sensory biology of sharks.

75(4) 1 Aristotle was also the fi rst person to occupied in fi ghting. Most of the time dieval work, “The Etymologies” (Bar- write about what we now call “nurs- they haul gently, but when he gets near ney et al., 2011), was signifi cant in eries” (Castro, 1993; Simpendorfer the boat, unless with a quick heave preserving and transmitting knowledge and Milward, 1993), areas where the they suddenly snatch him out of the from classical times to medieval times. females give birth to their young and water, they have to look on while he This work was an encyclopedia of the where the young fi nd food and safety is made away with.. And often when ancient Greco-Roman and early Chris- during their early life: “The selachia divers have already begun to be hauled tian knowledge, compiled by Isidore come in from the high seas and out of up they are snatched out of their com- (~560–636 A.D.), Bishop of Seville, the deep water towards land and pro- rades’ hands, unless they have them- in the early part of the seventh century. duce their young there; this is for the selves supplemented the aid of those “The Etymologies” was arguably the sake of the warmth and because they hauling by curling up into a ball. Oth- most infl uential book, after the Bible, are concerned for the safety of their ers of the crew of course thrust out in the learned world of the Latin West young” (Aristotle, 1970:265). Nothing harpoons, but the vast beast is crafty for nearly a thousand years (Barney et else would be added to the knowledge enough to go under the vessel and so al., 2011). The work has been referred of elasmobranch nurseries for over two carry on the battle in safety. Conse- to as “the entire Middle Ages as a ba- thousand years. quently divers devote their whole at- sic book” (Curtius, 1953). Roman writers of natural history tention to keeping a watch against this Isidore covered the available knowl- works, such as Aelian and Pliny, who disaster; the most reliable token of edge in grammar, mathematics, followed Aristotle, were compilers of safety is to have seen some fl at-fi sh, medicine, laws and crimes, religion, available information. Their contribu- which are never found where these animals, human anatomy, the cosmos, tion was that they prevented the Greek noxious creatures are—on account of geology, stones and metals, buildings, knowledge from being lost, but they which divers call them the holy fi sh.” rural matters, war, games, ships, and added few original observations. Pliny (Pliny, 1997:Book 9, LXX:265). hundreds of other subjects, also giving the Elder (A.D. 23–79) expanded Ar- The fall of Rome, around 476 A.D., the origins or etymologies of relevant istotle’s comments on the “holy fi sh” brought a period of economic regres- names and words. By the year 800 and fi rst recorded interactions between sion and political chaos; these in turn A.D., copies of “The Etymologies” divers and sharks: brought intellectual thought to a stand- were found in all the cultural centers “The number of dog-fi sh1 special- still. The Dark Ages had begun, and of Europe (Barney et al., 2011). ly swarming round sponges beset the for the next thousand years there was Although many marine and fresh- men that dive for them with grave dan- little intellectual advancement. water fi shes are named in “The Ety- ger…Divers have fi erce fi ghts with The Dark Ages, from the 6th to mologies,” and their names and habits the dog-fi sh; these attack their loins the 14th centuries in Europe, are also explained, there is little mention of and heels and all the white parts of called the Middle Ages, denoting the elasmobranch fi shes. There is an in- the body. The one safety lies in going time from the Classical Greco-Roman direct reference to dogfi sh, “People for them and frightening them by tak- Age to the Renaissance. Today most gave names to livestock and beasts ing the offensive; for a dog-fi sh is as historians use the term “Middle Ages,” and fl ying animals before naming fi sh, much afraid of a man as a man is of it, in appreciation of whatever advances because the former were seen and and so they are on equal terms in deep occurred elsewhere in that time. How- recognized before. Later as the types water. When they come to the surface, ever, as far as intellectual thought and of fi sh gradually came to be known, then the man is in critical danger, as observational science in Europe, those names were established based on ei- the policy of taking the offensive is not times were dark indeed, and I believe ther similarity to land animals or their available while he is trying to get out that the term Dark Ages is justifi ed. particular appearance or behavior…. of the water, and his only safety is in During the Dark Ages, the emphasis Based on land behavior, such as ‘dogs’ his comrades. These haul on the rope was not in creating new works but in in the sea [canes in mare], so called tied to his shoulders; his, as he car- preserving and transmitting the avail- from land dogs because they bite.” ries on the duel, he shakes with his left able knowledge. Originality and the Although Isidore had obviously hand to give a signal of danger, while recording of personal observation, read some of Aristotle’s works, noth- his right hand grasps his dagger and is common in Greco-Roman works, were ing from the “Historia Animalium” or usually absent in medieval works. the “Generation of Animals” made it 1The term dog-fi sh or seahound was used for large and small sharks. According to Aelian Thus ancient works were copied, often to “The Etymologies.” The only men- “There are three kinds of Sea-hound. The fi rst in monasteries, and facts were record- tion of a selachian is that “The elec- is of enormous size and may be reckoned among the most daring of sea monsters. The others are ed based on the authority of previous tric ray (torpedo) is named because it of two kinds, they live in the mud and reach authors. makes the body become numb (tor- about a cubit in length. Those that are speckled With the coming of the Dark Ages, pescere) if anyone touches it while it one may call galeus (small shark), and the rest, if you call them Spiny Dog-fi sh you will not go much of the existing knowledge of the is alive” (Barney et al., 2011:262), and wrong.” (Aelian, 1971:I, 55:73) Greco Roman Era was lost. One me- this is taken from Pliny. After this, the

2 Marine Fisheries Review Greek knowledge of sharks and other Danziger, 1999) explains much about mologous bones. For this work he is cartilaginous fi shes was lost until the fi shing in the year 1000: often considered the founder of com- Renaissance. parative anatomy. Later, in 1551, he During the Dark Ages, the available Master: “Which fi sh do you catch?” published “L’Histoire Naturelle des knowledge of animals was contained Fisherman: “Eels and pike, minnows Estranges Poissons Marins.” At the in works such as the “Physiologus” and burbot, trout and lampreys.” time, all aquatic creatures were con- and the “bestiaries.” The “Physiolo- Master: “Why don’t you fi sh the sidered fi shes, so this work is mainly gus” was a collection of simple al- sea?’ about the dolphin (Delphinidae) and legorized tales of animals and plants, Fisherman: “Sometimes I do, but secondarily about the hippopotamus, and it was one of the most popular and rarely, because it is a lot of row- Hippopotamus amphibious; and the widely read books of the Dark Ages ing for me to the sea.” nautilus, Nautilus spp. Only ten fi shes (Curley, 1979). It is probably Egyptian are described in Belon’s work, includ- in origin, and it was in circulation by During the Dark Ages, knowl- ing two sharks, but all the descriptions 140 A.D. Latin translations existed by edge about animals from the classi- are clear and are accompanied by ac- 350–500 A.D. The Physiologus engen- cal authors was preserved by copying curate woodcut illustrations. They are dered the “bestiaries” of the 12th and in monasteries and later by transla- suffi cient to identify the species. 13th centuries. The bestiaries were tion and transcription in the Islamic Ippolito Salviani, professor of medi- medieval books of “beasts,” depicting world. The ancient works being cop- cine in Rome and physician to popes real and imaginary creatures, and most ied were then about a thousand years Julius III, Marcellus II, and Paul IV, bestiaries were created in England be- old. Little was added to the available would produce a large treatise on tween 1150 and 1290 A.D. The besti- knowledge during that time, because fi shes in 1554, the “Aquatilium Ani- aries are often beautifully illustrated, original thought and observation were malium Historiae,” with excellent il- e.g., the splendid “Book of Beasts, a not encouraged. lustrations of sharks (Fig. 1 and 2). facsimile of Ms. Bodley 764” (Bodle- With the beginning of the four- The beauty and accuracy of the en- ian Library, 2009), and its English teenth century, the revival of knowl- gravings were not surpassed until the translation by Barber (1992). In the edge known as the Renaissance started nineteenth century. bestiaries, the fi rst portion of the de- to fl ourish. However it would not be Guillaume Rondelet, studied medi- scription, when the creature really ex- until the middle of the sixteenth cen- cine at Montpelier, and he was the ists, is often accurate and based on tury, with the beginnings of ichthyol- most remarkable of the trio. He wrote observation; the second part is usually ogy, that knowledge of elasmobranchs the most comprehensive work, the an allegory. would advance again. “L’histoire Entière des Poissons,” a Fishes are seldom included in the The conditions of the times would 1558 French abridgement of his previ- bestiaries. The few illustrations of fi sh- create three men, all born within 10 ous Latin works. Although Rondelet’s es in the bestiaries include horse-like years of each other, who would lay fi gures are woodcuts, inferior in beau- or dragon-like creatures, as well as the foundations of comparative anato- ty and quality to Salviani’s engravings, good depictions of penguins (Sphenic- my and ichthyology. They were Pierre the descriptions are accurate and the idae), which were considered fi shes. Belon (1517–1564), Ippolito Salviani illustrations are recognizable images Elasmobranch fi shes are generally ab- (1514–1572), and Guillaume Ronde- (Fig. 3) of 22 species of rays and 13 of sent in the bestiaries, with the men- let (1507–1566), and all were trained sharks, and they are accompanied by tion of dogfi shes being the exception as medical men. Unlike their prede- notes on their natural history or habits. (probably from “The Etymologies”?). cessors over the previous millennium, The study of the anatomy of sharks Why are elasmobranchs absent from these men wrote about animals that also began in this period, with the the “Physiologus” and from bestiar- they observed and examined by them- works of Nicolaus Steno2, born in Co- ies? The main reason for the loss of selves, and faithfully illustrated them. penhagen, Denmark, in 1638. He stud- the knowledge is that medieval man Pierre Belon was born near Le ied medicine and the related branches did not come in contact with elasmo- Mans, France. He studied medicine of the natural sciences at the Univer- branch fi shes. Medieval men fi shed in Paris, receiving a doctor’s degree, sity of Copenhagen where at the time mainly in rivers, and there were no but it is uncertain if he ever prac- these studies were being pursued with freshwater elasmobranchs in Europe. ticed medicine (Gudger, 1934). He great zeal by a series of great scholars Medieval rivers were relatively unpol- was a naturalist best known for his (Maar, 1910). luted and teemed with fi sh; medieval “L’Histoire de la Nature des Oyseaux,” Steno was the fi rst person since man did not need to travel to the ocean which was said to be the best ornitho- Aristotle to make observations and to obtain fi sh. A school ditty used by logical work produced in the sixteenth descriptions of the anatomy of elasmo- Aelfric, a Wessex schoolmaster in century. In this work he represented 2 His original Danish name was Niels Steensen. 987–1002 A.D., to instruct students two facing fi gures of the skeletons of The Latinized form Nicolaus Steno is normally in the various occupations (Lacey and a human and a pigeon, labeling the ho- used these days. Also seen as Nicolai Stenonis.

75(4) 3 Figure 1.—Salviani’s (1554) engraving of the shark Oxynotus centrina. The quality and accuracy of his fi sh engravings would not be surpassed until the nineteenth century. The name is given in Greek, Latin, and vulgate.

Figure 2.—Salviani’s ventral view of Oxynotus centrina. branchs. Steno rediscovered the pla- two rays. Steno is probably best known publication is not only an anatomi- centa in the Common Smooth-hound, for his publication on the dissection cal description of the skin, eye, brain Mustelus mustelus, apparently not be- of the head of a white shark, “Canis and teeth of the shark (Fig. 4), but in ing aware of Aristotle’s descriptions, Carchariae Dissectum Caput.”3 This a series of postulates, Steno laid the and he also went on to describe the 3For a translation of this seminal publication, foundation for scientifi c geology and anatomy of the digestive systems of see Garboe (1958). paleontology.

4 Marine Fisheries Review In the early seventeenth century the nature of fossils was unknown, and fossils were assumed to be just par- ticles that resembled plants or ani- mals and there was much confusion about their origin. Fossilized shark teeth were known as “glossopetrae” and were often said to be the tongues of serpents or dragons. Observing the large teeth of the shark, Steno noted the close resemblance to fossilized shark teeth. One of the naturalists of the era, Fabio Colonna, had already stated years earlier that glossopetrae were nothing but sharks teeth in a pet- rifi ed state. Steno shared that opinion, realizing that what was true for shark teeth was true for other fossils: they had all once been living organisms that had been encased in soils that had Figure 3.—Rondelet’s (1558) woodcut of Oxynotus centrina. eventually petrifi ed, and that former marine sediments had hardened and were now on land. Steno summed up increased slowly during and after the much of that early oral knowledge of the origins of fossils in his sixth pos- Renaissance, and the introduction of sharks was lost. tulate: “Nothing seems to oppose the the Linnaean System of Nomencla- opinion that the bodies dug out of the ture in 1735 marks the beginning of Earliest Shark Encounters ground and looking like parts of ani- modern ichthyology. However, the fi rst Since the earliest times, sharks have mals should be considered as parts of major, modern work on sharks and presented a danger for shipwrecked animals” (Garboe, 1958:35). Steno’s rays would not appear until the early sailors and for divers who regularly six postulates opened the door of un- nineteenth century when Johannes entered the sea. Medieval Europeans derstanding in scientifi c geology and Müller and Jacob Henle (1838–1841) were acquainted with the small dog- paleontology. published the “Systematische Be- fi shes (Galeus spp., Mustelus spp.) The rediscovery of sharks in the schereibung der Plagiostomen,” with that were abundant along the Europe- Renaissance was not limited to schol- its careful descriptions and splendid an coasts, but there are only nominal ars, as men of humble education also hand-colored plates (Fig. 6). mentions of them in the pre Renais- published descriptions of sharks. One sance literature. In general, Europeans of the earliest depictions of different Sharks in the Western Hemisphere had little contact with large elasmo- sharks were the illustrations by Adri- branchs until after the discovery of aen Coenen (1514–1587), the son of The fi rst to learn about sharks in the New World by the Spanish, so it is fi sherman and a wholesaler of fi sh, North America were the native fi sh- natural that the fi rst accounts of large who produced one of the oldest manu- ermen who learned how, when, and elasmobranchs came from Spanish scripts illustrating whales and fi shes. where to catch them for food or for authors. His crude watercolors depict main- their oils. Archeological evidence The Spanish were familiar with ly whales, but some depict different shows that prehistoric American Indi- small dogfi sh sharks which they called sharks and they are accurate enough ans utilized sharks widely. Extensive cazones (Castro, 2002). In the late fi f- to discern the species (Fig. 5). Coenen shark remains in Indian middens in teenth and the early sixteenth centu- fi nished three albums of watercolors South Florida indicate that sharks were ries, the early Spanish explorers fi rst before his death. They are seldom seen an important food resource in prehis- encountered the large and voracious by scholars, because they have only toric America, and that their teeth were sharks of the Caribbean, and in those been published in “The Whale Book” used as cutting tools (Kozuch, 1993). days, with no fi sheries preventing the (Egmond and Mason, 2003). During Based on the dogfi sh spines found in sharks from reaching their allotted this period the word “shark” appeared the middens of the Pacifi c Northwest, age and size, there must have been in the English language along with one Indians there were also catching large comparatively incredible numbers of of the earliest illustrations of a shark numbers of dogfi sh, but whether they large sharks. The Spaniards quickly (Jones, 1985; Castro, 2002). were using them for oil or skin is un- distinguished the large sharks from The knowledge of sharks and rays certain (Ketchen, 1986). In any case, the smaller cazones with which they

75(4) 5 were familiar, and, lacking a name for them, they borrowed the Indian name, “tiburones” (singular tiburón) (Castro, 2002). Early Natural History Although the knowledge that the In- dian tribes of the Americas had about sharks has been lost, there is evidence that some tribes were aware that sharks could be dangerous to humans. In one of the few surviving Mexican codi- ces, the “Codex Fejérvary-Mayer” (Seler, 1902), there is a stylized fi g- ure of what is clearly a shark (Fig. 7, Seler, 1902:plate IX, No. 42). It shows an elongated fi sh-like creature with a mouthful of large triangular teeth, with the right number of fi ns for a shark, a heterocercal tail, and a human foot pro- truding from its mouth. It is probably a Bull Shark, Carcharhinus leucas, or a Tiger Shark, Galeocerdo cuvier. The creature is labeled “acipactli,” and translated as “a swordfi sh.” This is ob- viously a translation error, as the crea- ture is certainly shark-like and lacks the identifying rostrum and homocer- cal tail of the swordfi sh, and swordfi sh also lack the large triangular teeth de- picted in the illustration (Castro, 2002). The fi rst natural history of the New World was “Sumario de la Natural Historia de las Indias” written by Gon- zalo Fernández de Oviedo and pub- lished in Toledo, Spain, in February 1526. In this work, Oviedo (1526:256) mentions the great diversity and num- ber of “fi shes” in the New World, but he discusses only three: tortuga (tur- tle), tiburón (shark), and manatí (man- atee) He writes: “El segundo pescado de los tres que de suso se dijo, se lla- ma tiburón; este es grande pescado, y muy suelto en el agua, y muy car- nicero.” [The second fi sh of the three mentioned above, is called a tiburón, this is a great fi sh, very quick in the water, and very much a carnivore]. De Figure 4.—Steno’s 1668 drawing of the head of a White Shark, Carcharodon Oviedo’s explanation of what the ani- carcharias. mal was called indicated that the read- er was not expected to be familiar with the fi sh or the name. Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484– 1566) was one of early Spanish set- tlers in the New World, arriving in Cuba in 1502. Around 1513 he be-

6 Marine Fisheries Review that they were not published for 350 years (Las Casas, 1951). In a separate publication, Las Casas wrote one of the earliest descriptions of sharks from the New World. In his “Apologetica Historia Sumaria,” be- gun in 1527, Las Casas wrote: “Hay en la mar y entran tambien en los rios unos peces de hechura de cazones ó al menos todo el cuerpo, la cabeza bota y la boca en el derecho de la barriga, con muchos dientes, que los indios llamaron tiburones…” (Las Casas, 1958:36) [There are in the sea (of Hispaniola) some fi shes that also en- ter the rivers, built like cazones or at least their whole body, the head blunt, and the mouth in the centerline of the belly, with many teeth, that the Indians called “tiburones”]. Figure 5.—Coenen’ s (1585) drawing of an Oxynotus. Las Casas also penned in his His- toria the fi rst report of a shark attack on humans in the New World (Las Ca- came an ordained priest (probably the gorio in Valladolid in 1551. In 1559 sas, 1951). Most of the Spaniards that fi rst to be ordained in the Americas). Las Casas willed the manuscript of his came to the New World expected to In time he would become a Dominican great work “Historia de las Indias” to become very rich in a short time. Be- friar and the defender of the Indians, the monastery, with the prohibition of sides searching for gold and spices, writing extensively about the abuses publishing his work until 40 years after many also searched for pearls. Be- and atrocities committed on them. his death. His accounts of the atroci- cause many of the Indians were great Returning to Spain in 1547, Las Ca- ties committed by the Spaniards on the divers, the Spaniards compelled their sas joined the monastery of San Gre- Indians were considered so damaging Indian slaves to dive for pearls.

Figure 6.—Müller and Henle’ s (1838–1841) depiction of a Shortfi n Mako, Isurus oxyrinchus.

75(4) 7 Figure 7.—Depiction of a shark with a human foot sticking out of its mouth, from Seler, 1902. Note the correct number of fi ns, heterocercal tail, and triangular teeth.

In the third volume of his “Historia fi sh and that he feared it would kill to the Mako Shark (genus Isurus) in de las Indias” (1951) Las Casas wrote: him; the Spaniard forced him to return many Spanish speaking countries. “They take them [Indians] in their ca- to diving and to make sure beat the In- Both the White Shark and the Mako noes, which are their small boats, and dian with a stick. The sad Indian dove, are lamnoid sharks with pointed noses a Spanish executioner [verdugo] goes and the marrajo, that was waiting for and powerful caudal keels on the cau- with them to direct them; arriving in him, charged him and swallowed him. dal peduncle and can be easily con- deep water three or four fathoms deep, It seems that at the beginning the In- fused in the water. At the time when he orders them to enter the water; they dian fought with the fi sh, and there Las Casas and Oviedo were writing dive and go all the way to the bottom was a swirl in the water for a while; (early 1500’s), Caribbean monk seals, and there they take the oyster4 that the Spaniard understood that the fi sh Monachus tropicalis, were abundant carry the pearls, and they fi ll some had attacked the Indian, and seeing in the West Indies. Oviedo, in vol. 2 small nets that they carry around their that the Indian was not returning, he (1535:59) wrote that “There are many necks…” killed a small dog that they had in the seals and they are very large in the He continued, “Commonly there boat, and put it on a hook with a heavy seas of these Indies, as well as among are two species of beasts, and even chain, which they commonly carry for such islands, and also on the coasts three, being very cruel, that eat men, these fi shes, and threw it in the water; of the mainland.” I believe that White and even horses they can tear to piec- and later the marrajo took it [the bait- Sharks frequented those waters just as es; one species is ‘tiburones,’ and the ed hook] for it was not satisfi ed, and they frequent waters around seal and second is ‘marrajos’ [probably the the hook set in such way that it could sea lion rookeries elsewhere today, White Shark], the third is crocodiles; not escape; the Spaniard feeling that whereas Mako Sharks are oceanic spe- called ‘lagartos’ by those that do not the fi sh was hooked, gave it enough cies that do not enter shallow waters. know [the ignorant]. The tiburones and line, and slowly returned towards the Oviedo, vol. 2, (1535:62) describes lagartos, which have admirable teeth, beach in his canoe or boat. Jumping to them in this way: “Marrajo es un ani- seize a man or a horse by the leg or by the land, he called for people to help mal mayor que el tiburón e más fi ero, the arm or any other part, and taking him, they landed the beast, giving pero no tan suelto ni presto. Quieren him deep, they kill him there, and eat blows with axes and rocks or whatever en algo parecer a los tiburones, porque him on their own time; the ‘marrajos’ they had, and killed it, opening its bel- son asimesmo animales de cuero, pero are very much larger and have great ly they found the unfortunate Indian como digo, son mayores…Destos he mouths, and they can swallow [a man] and took him out, the Indian gave two yo visto con nueve ordenes de dien- on the fi rst gulp. On one occasion, it or three gasps and he died there.” (My tes, unos en torno de otros la boca cir- happened that an Indian, upon diving, translation, from vol. 3 of Las Casas, cuida. En España los hay, en los mares saw a marrajo close to him, and came 1951:403.) della, de la mesma manera, segun up fl eeing up out of the water [onto The marrajo was probably the White hombres de la mar lo dicen. [Transl: the canoe]; the Spanish executioner ar- Shark5. The name is applied today The marrajo is a larger animal than the gued with him asking why he came up tiburón (shark) and fi ercer, but not as so quickly without bringing anything; 5The only other shark in the area capable of swift nor ready to pounce. They some- the Indian said that there was a great swallowing a human being would be a large what resemble sharks, as they are both Tiger Shark. Oviedo’s statement that the marrajo 4The pearl-oyster, Pinctata imbricate (MacKen- is present in Spanish waters suggests the White scaleless animals, but as I said, they zie et al., 2003). Shark. are bigger. Of these I have seen some

8 Marine Fisheries Review with nine rows of teeth, one behind the and mantas] and announces their pres- The Curious Naturalists other in the circular mouth…They are ence by means of the ropes attached found in the seas off Spain, according to each slave, so that the divers are The European colonization of to what the seamen say]. warned, and the foreman will even en- America brought the early natural- The Caribbean monk seal was sub- ter the water with a weapon to assist ists (e.g., Bannister, Bartram, Wilson, ject to an indiscriminate slaughter for in the diver’s defense, but despite this Audubon). These men studied the land over 300 years and was so scarce by precaution and help, usually some of animals and plants, but they had lit- the 1880’s that Allen (1887:2) referred the black divers are entombed in the tle interest in sea animals which were to it as an “almost mythical species.” maw of these fi shes, some are maimed diffi cult to study. Sea animals were It has been considered extinct since losing a leg or an arm, depending studied when they were exploited and the 1950’s (Kenyon, 1977). As the on how they are seized (De Ulloa, became economically important, and abundant seals were killed off, the 2002:173, my translation). the knowledge of sharks followed this White Shark ceased to visit the shal- Interestingly, the Manta, Manta bi- trend. Curious naturalists would not low coastal waters of the West In- rostris, was also “much dreaded” by study sharks until the early twentieth dies. The name marrajo endured, on the pearl divers (Jordan, 1907). Why century, at about the same time when its similar cousins, the Mako Sharks, did such a fi lter-feeding, gentle giant sharks started to be exploited. So, to Isurus spp. acquire such reputation? According to understand how knowledge of sharks Shark attacks on pearl divers contin- de Ulloa (2002), “the mantas squeeze was acquired in North America, one ued throughout the Spanish Americas them [the fi shermen], enveloping them must follow the development of natu- during the colonial period. Once the with their bodies or putting all their ral history as well as the industries that Indian divers (and their entire tribes) weight against them on the bottom; it exploited sharks. had been obliterated though disease, seems that, not without reason, that When faunistic works on fi shes famine, and the Spanish cruelties, they the name manta [blanket] was given to started to appear in the 1800’s, natu- were replaced by black slaves. this fi shes, from its shape and proper- ralists just enumerated the species of Antonio de Ulloa (Seville 1716–Ca- ties, the shape being as extensive and sharks that they could discern, if any, diz 1795) governor of Louisiana and big as a blanket, it has the same pur- that they had obtained from the lit- Florida, geographer, and member of pose, of enveloping the man or other erature, sometimes adding a few as- the La Condamine expedition to Ec- animal that it catches, squeezing it in sorted facts. One of the earliest works uador, traveled extensively though such manner, that it makes [the victim] on fi shes in North America is Smith’s the Spanish Americas in the 1700’s. exhale its last breath by being com- “Natural History of the Fishes of In 1748, de Ulloa wrote “Viaje a la pressed; the form of this fi sh is similar Massachusetts” (1833) which includ- América Meridional,” an extensive to a ray, except for being incompara- ed eight species of sharks (and four description of the places and peoples bly larger” (de Ulloa, 2002:174, my rays), most of which can clearly be he visited. He described the pearl fi sh- translation). identifi ed: Smooth Dogfi sh, Mustelus ery in the many islands of the Archi- Mantas are well known to tangle canis; Spiny Dogfi sh, Squalus acan- pelago de las Perlas, such as Isla del with mooring lines or boat anchor thias; White Shark, Carcharodon car- Rey and Taboga. Sharks were greatly lines, and so dragging buoys or small charias; Blue Shark, Prionace glauca; feared by the pearl divers. “Sharks boats for long distances. So, it is likely Common Thresher, Alopias vulpinus; and tintoreras [female sharks, but that one of these behemoths, swim- Hammerhead Shark, Sphyrna sp.; and usually Tiger Sharks], of monstrous ming through the multiple lines dan- Basking Shark, Cetorhinus maximus. size, make proper meals of the bod- gling from a pearl fi shing boat, could Smith’s accounts are generally short ies of the fi shermen,” wrote de Ulloa catch one of the lines in its cephalic and fanciful, except for that of the (2002:173–174). “Boats carrying eigh- appendages, and so pull the unfortu- White Shark which repeats the dread- teen to twenty black divers with a fore- nate diver against its ventral side, giv- ful accounts of its voracity and attacks man, more or fewer depending on the ing the appearance of enveloping the on humans so common to the White size of the boat and the number in the diver and dragging him to the depths, Shark literature. team, travel far from shore to places and probably forcing the crew to sev- DeKay (1842) gave more compre- they recognize as oyster grounds and er the line. Conversely, the tangled hensive taxonomic descriptions of 13 where the water depth does not exceed manta could follow the path of least sharks (Fig. 8) in his book on the fauna ten to fi fteen fathoms deep.” resistance along the rope and end at of New York, but there was little else The divers were tied to the boat by the bottom pressing the diver in the in the descriptions. Storer (1845), in a rope and each carried a weight to manner described by de Ulloa. This his “A Synopsis of the Fishes of North allow them to get to the bottom eas- is probably how the manta, plankton- America,” included 14 species in his ily and search for oysters. “The black feeding and gentle, acquired its earlier Squalidae (which included the genus foreman, who remains in the boats, names of devil-ray or sea-devil, and a Pristis). He gave but a brief descrip- maintains a lookout for them [sharks sinister reputation. tion of the sharks, stating “With most

75(4) 9 Figure 8.—Mustelus canis (DeKay, 1842). of the species found out of the waters know, or care to know about fi shes.” is strictly taxonomic, but the illustra- of Massachusetts, my acquaintance is The implication was clear, ichthyolo- tions of sharks, rays, and anatomical but slight. Many of them I have had gists, ergo, people, had little interest in details are splendid (Fig. 10). There no opportunities of examining” (Stor- sharks. is almost no biological information er, 1845:254). The Civil War and the Despite the ichthyologists’s general about species because such was the hard economic times that followed pre- lack of interest in sharks, in the ear- lack of knowledge of the natural his- vented any further works on American ly twentieth century, a few works on tory of sharks at the time. sharks until early in the next century. sharks were published that have not The only attempt to understand the At the beginning of the twentieth been surpassed in usefulness and beau- behavior of sharks in the early twen- century, most ichthyologists had little ty. The fi rst of these works was “The tieth century was by G. H. Parker interest in sharks. Ichthyologists were Normal Plates of the Development of (1914), who carried out a series of ex- trained to identify fi shes, and usually Squalus acanthias” by R. E. Scam- periments to understand how dogfi sh cared little about their biology, ex- mon (1911), of the Harvard Medical used their sense of smell. In the fol- cept for a few species of commercial School. Scammon illustrated the en- lowing decades, sharks would acquire importance. And ichthyologists iden- tire development of the Spiny Dogfi sh, increasing economic importance and tifi ed fi shes using meristic traits such with excellent drawings of both whole our knowledge about them would ex- as scale or spine counts, skeletal bone embryos and cross and sagittal sec- pand dramatically, although the birth structures, etc. Sharks did not have tions (Fig. 9). It remains today as the of shark biology (and not just shark commercial importance and none of most complete reference to the nor- taxonomy) was still decades away. the morphological characteristics that mal developmental stages of sharks. ichthyologists liked to use for identi- This work was part of a German series Bashford Dean fi cation. So, ichthyologists generally (“Normentlafen zur entwicklunsge- The most signifi cant works on ignored sharks. David Starr Jordan schichte der wirbeltiere”) on the em- sharks of the early twentieth century (1907), the dean of American ichthy- bryonic development of animals. resulted from the work of Bashford ologists, covered the entire elasmo- The fi rst American treatise dedicated Dean (1867–1928), a scholar with di- branchs in 37 of the 789 pages of his to elasmobranchs, “The Plagiostomia,” verse interests ranging from archaic comprehensive popular work “Fishes.” was done by Samuel Garman (1913), fi shes to medieval body armor (Greg- In a prefatory note to the second edi- of the Museum of Comparative Zo- ory, 1930–1933). He was professor tion of his book, Jordan (1925) wrote ology at Harvard College. This work of vertebrate zoology at Columbia “the writer has tried to compress covered all the species then known University, curator of recent and fos- all that an educated man is likely to from throughout the world. The work sil fi shes at the American Museum

10 Marine Fisheries Review Figure 9.—Squalus acanthias: 15 mm embryo, sagittal section (Scammon, 1911). of Natural History, and an expert and tire literature of both living and fossil of Natural History, and Bertram G. collector of medieval armor. Enter- fi shes. For this great work, which took Smith, Professor of Anatomy at New ing the College of the City of New over thirty-three years to complete, York University, used Dean’s materi- York before he was fourteen years old, the National Academy of Sciences als and notes to prepare a series of he graduated with high honors in the awarded him the Daniel Giraud Elliot monographs on the Frill Shark and class of 1886. Later he entered Colum- medal in 1923. This work was reissued the Japanese Horn Shark, which were bia University as a graduate student in 1962 because it remains the most published in the Bashford Dean Me- in geology and biology, obtaining his useful source for the pre 1914 litera- morial volume. Those dedicated to the doctorate in 1891. ture on fi shes. However, I consider that Frill Shark are: “The Natural History At a time when ichthyologists were Dean’s greatest contribution was in of the Frilled Shark Chlamydoselachus simply trained to identify fi shes, often the unfi nished drawings and notes he anguineus” (Gudger and Smith, 1933); ignoring everything else about them left behind, for these engendered some “The Anatomy of the Frilled Shark while becoming obsessed with trivia comprehensive works whose beauty Chlamydoselachus anguineus Gar- of the nomenclature, Bashford Dean has never been surpassed. man” (Smith, 1937); and “The Breed- studied the embryology, anatomy, and The discovery of the Frill Shark, ing Habits, Reproductive Organs, and paleontology of fi shes, and never lost Chlamydoselachus anguineus, in 1884 External Embryonic Development of an opportunity to watch the behav- (Garman, 1885–1886) caught Dean’s Chlamydoselachus Based on Notes ior, spawning, or nesting of fi shes. In attention and in the early 1900’s, and Drawings Left by Bashford Dean” 1895, at the age of 28, after some fi ve he traveled to Japan and secured 39 (Gudger, 1940). Dean’s work on the years of work in ichthyology, he pub- specimens (Gudger and Smith, 1933). Japanese Horn Shark was published in lished his notable textbook, “Fishes, Dean studied the Frill Shark and the “The Heterodontid Sharks: Their Nat- Living and Fossil,” a unique work that Japanese Horn Shark, Heterodontus ural History, and the External Devel- synthesized embryology, comparative japonicas, for many years, making ex- opment of Heterodontus (Cestracion) anatomy, and paleontology of fi shes. quisite drawings of developing embry- japonicus Based on Notes and Draw- His subsequent work “The Chimaeroid os of both species. He also provided ings by Bashford Dean” (Smith, 1942; Fishes and Their Development” (1906) other scholars with anatomical mate- Fig. 12). The resulting monographs are continued his pattern of describing the rial that resulted in several published splendid, comprehensive works sel- embryology, anatomy, and paleontol- works (e.g., “The Cranial Anatomy of dom equaled in the study of sharks. ogy of the fi shes he studied. Chlamydoselachus anguineus” (Al- Most people consider that Dean’s lis, Jr., 1923; Fig. 11). Unfortunately, Eugene Willis Gudger magnum opus was the three-volume Dean died in 1928 before fi nishing his Eugene Willis Gudger (1866–1956) “Bibliography of Fishes” (Dean, 1962; studies. was the fi rst American ichthyologist fi rst published in 1917, the last vol- After his death, Eugene W. Gudg- that can be considered a true natural- ume issued in 1923), covering the en- er, also of the American Museum ist and the fi rst to study the biology of

75(4) 11 Figure. 10.—Mustelus henlei and Carcharodon carcharias (Garman, 1913). elasmobranchs. Gudger, who received raphy of Fishes” by Bashford Dean Ray, Aetobatus narinari, remains the his Ph.D. degree from Johns Hopkins (1962). Later he edited the “Bashford source document on the species. University in 1905, wrote more than Dean Memorial Volume” (referenced Gudger had a lifetime preoccupa- 300 papers on subjects ranging from earlier), and authored or coauthored tion with the Whale Shark, Rhincodon fi refl ies and fi shing spiders, to jaguars two of the articles. He remained at the typus, and wrote more than 40 papers and sharks. Unlike most of his fellow Museum as an assistant curator and on the species. Gudger was able to ex- ichthyologists who were interested later as honorary associate in ichthyol- amine only one Whale Shark in his life only in identifying and naming fi shes, ogy. He was the fi rst to conduct fi eld (Fire Island, N.Y., 1935), so many of the eclectic Gudger wrote numerous studies of numerous elasmobranchs, his papers are just second-hand cap- papers about the habits of many bony and wrote papers on the feeding hab- ture records for various localities. Al- fi shes and sharks. Many of his articles its of the Great Hammerhead, Sphyr- though in 1952 some believed that were published in popular natural his- na mokarran (Gudger, 1907), natural Whale Sharks were oviparous, Gudger tory magazines. He was Professor of history notes on the sharks and rays (1952) wrote “One could not conceive Biology at the North Carolina College of Beaufort, North Carolina (Gudger, such a giant laying eggs.” Time would for Women (1905–1919). In 1919, at 1912), and the feeding habits of the Ti- prove him correct, but it would take the request of the American Museum ger Shark, Galeocerdo cuvier (Gudger, more than four decades for proof to be of Natural History, he became the edi- 1948a, 1948b, 1949). His monograph obtained (Castro, 2011). He also ac- tor of the third volume of “A Bibliog- (Gudger, 1914) on the Spotted Eagle curately anticipated that Whale Sharks

12 Marine Fisheries Review Figure 11.—Chlamydoselachus: Lateral view of head, with dermis and eyeball removed, by J. Nomura (Allis, 1923). grew rapidly, long before any growth Oil to dress Leather withal; the Bones a lubricant in many tools and mills of data were available. in their head are said to hasten the the period. It was also used for me- Gudger also wrote papers on the Birth, and ease the Stone, by bringing dicinal purposes due to its vitamin A history of ichthyology, ranging from it away…Their meat is eaten in scarce content. Pliny’s “Historia Naturalis” to the times; but I never could away with it, Smith (1833), in his “Natural His- Renaissance ichthyologists and their though a great lover of fi sh...The dog- tory of the Fishes of Massachusetts,” discoveries (Gudger, 1924, 1934, fi sh are a small sort of the Shark Kind; wrote that the skin of the dogfi sh 1950). There is a partial “Bibliogra- and are caught with Hook and Line, “when dry, is used by cabinet makers phy of Dr. E. W. Gudger’s Contribu- fi shing for Drums. They say, they are for polishing wood, and by surgical in- tions to the History of Ichthyology” good Meat; but we have so many other strument makers, for covering cases.” (Gudger, 1951), with an editorial note sorts of Delicate Fish, that I shall hard- He also summed up the concern about by historian George Sarton promis- ly ever make Tryal of what they are.” dogfi sh of his time: “It is a spiteful, ing a “complete bibliography which Throughout the nineteenth century, voracious, cartilaginous shark,—very will eventually be published in a jour- the Spiny Dogfi sh was the only shark muscular, and the eternal enemy of nal devoted to ichthyology or natural species utilized in any degree on both cod,—getting possession of the feed- history.” (Gudger, 1951:237). To my coasts. It was fi shed for its liver oil, ing ground, some seasons, to the great knowledge, such a bibliography has which was used as a lubricant and for loss of the fi shermen. In 1831, they never been published. lighting and tanning, and for its skin were so uncommonly numerous, that which was used as an abrasive. Dog- the cod-fi shery was attended with im- The Dogfi sh Oil Industry fi sh oil was considered “quite superi- mense loss. The dog-fi sh is familiarly English colonists in America had or to whale oil” for lighting purposes, known along the entire coast of the no tradition of using sharks as food, and when properly refi ned, it was “sec- United States, that is it quite unneces- though shark liver oil and skins were ond only to sperm oil” (Swan, 1870). sary to be minute in the description” utilized through the colonial period. Dogfi sh oil was used extensively (Smith, 1833:82.). John Lawson, who explored the Car- in the tanning industry for the curry- Although despised by the cod fi sh- olinas around 1700, summed up the ing of leather. Tressler (1923) stated ermen, the dogfi sh became an impor- colonist’s attitude and use of sharks that its most important use in the early tant fi shery in New England during in his “A New Voyage to Carolina” twentieth century was in the tanning the early nineteenth century. Goode (1709:155): “Their Livers make good industry. Dogfi sh oil was also used as (1884:674) quoted a Massachusetts

75(4) 13 Figure 12.—Development of Heterodontus japonicas (Smith, 1942).

14 Marine Fisheries Review fi sherman stating that: “When I fi rst is extracted, which is then carefully from the liver for lubrication and began to go fi shing, in 1810 to 1820, skimmed off and stored in recepta- lighting, and the fl esh was used for the Dogfi sh fi shery was considered cles made of paunches and intestines fertilizer. one of the most valuable fi sheries that of whales, fi sh or seals. In the fall of By the mid 1880’s, coal oil and pe- we had around the shore. They ap- the year the fl esh of the dogfi sh con- troleum products appeared in the mar- peared here in the spring and were tains a considerable proportion of oil, ket, and they were cheaper than dogfi sh very plenty, and would last a day or which at other times it does not appear oil by 5–10 cents per gallon (Gedosch, two and then all would be gone. Then to possess; this is extracted in the fol- 1968). There was also competition you would not see a Dogfi sh again all lowing manner: When the livers are from Icelandic and Japanese dogfi sh summer; but about the 10th, or middle taken out, the head and backbone are oils. The State of Washington dogfi sh of September, they came to us again also removed, and the rest of the body, oil industry still existed in 1890, when returning south, They would stay into being fi rst slightly dried in the smoke, 50,000 gallons of oil were produced. November, and during that time the is steamed on hot stones till it is thor- After 1892, the annual reports issued fi shermen would get—a man and a oughly cooked. It is then put into little by the state fi sh commissioner do not boy—all the way from eight, ten, to baskets made for the purpose, of soft mention oil extraction, probably be- fi fteen barrels of oil.” Goode also add- cedar bark, and rolled and squeezed cause there was little or no production ed that “In addition to the oil yielded till all the liquid is extracted. This in (Gedosch, 1968). It would take nearly by these little Sharks, the skin is of color resembles dirty milk. It is boiled four decades before the shark liver-oil considerable value, and will doubtless and allowed to cool and settle, and industry would revive again. in future be more highly prized than it the oil is then skimmed off. After the is at present. It is used by the fi sher- oil is extracted, the fl esh is washed in The Ocean Leather Company men to polish their metallic mackerel- fresh water and again squeezed in the The large scale utilization of sharks jigs and sometimes in polishing the baskets and in this state it is eaten by in the United States begins with The fancy wood-work shipboard.” the Indians when other food is scarce. Ocean Leather Company7 during the The dogfi sh also became an impor- But dogfi sh is seldom tasted by the early part of the twentieth century. tant industry on the Pacifi c Northwest Makah and never until all the oil has Businessman Alfred Ehrenreich had coast. The Indian tribes of the area had been thoroughly removed. The oil has been exploring the utilization of sea been using dogfi sh oil and skin for a nauseous taste and it is not relished animals (sharks, rays, porpoises, small centuries. James G. Swan6, one of the by these Indians, who are epicures in whales) for commercial purposes. early settlers in the Washington Terri- their way, and prefer the oil of whales Ehrenreich contacted the Bendixon tory, wrote in his ethnographic mono- and seals” (Swan, 1869:29). brothers of Copenhagen, Denmark, graph on the Makah Indians (Swan, Gedosch (1968:100), wrote an in- who had patented a method of tanning 1869:29): “The dogfi sh (yá-cha) Acan- teresting history of the dogfi sh oil the hides of sharks and whales. At Eh- thias suckleyi, is taken in great quan- industry in the Washington Terri- renreich’s request one of the Bendixon tities for the sake of the oil contained tory and stated that “production and brothers came to the United States to in the liver, which forms the principal trade in dogfi sh oil was common to arrange for the utilization of their pat- article of traffi c between these Indi- the Makah of Cape Flattery, the Lay- ents in the production of leather from ans and the whites...The method of outs, Intimates, the Notches of Brit- sharks and cetaceans. extracting as practiced by the Makahs ish Columbia, the tribes inhabiting the In the spring of 1917, Ehrenreich is to collect the livers, which are put lands fronting on Puget Sound, and, and Bendixon, along with a group into a tub and kept until a consider- to a lesser extent, those living on the of stockholders, launched the Ocean able quantity has accumulated. They coast... The Canadian Indians traded Leather Company to handle the Amer- are then put in to iron pots, and set to dogfi sh oil to the Makah and the latter ican patent rights and products of the simmer near the fi re; or else hot stones sold the oil to the white men.” 7Much of the information in this section was are placed among them and they are When New England lumbermen obtained from a manuscript titled “Report to A. cooked by the heat until all the oil moved to the Pacifi c Northwest in the Iselin & Co. on the Ocean Leather Company, Inc.,” produced by The Industrial Company, of 1850’s, they were accustomed to using Boston, Mass., and dated May 1921. The In- 6James G. Swan (1818–1900), arrived in the fi sh oil as lubricant, and they were fa- dustrial Company had been requested by poten- Washington Territory in 1852. He led an inter- miliar with the Spiny Dogfi sh and its tial investors to investigate whether the leather esting and colorful life, being an oysterman, company was “engaged in a sound business or judge, diarist, reservation schoolteacher, and oil (Gedosch, 1968). Thus, the lumber commercial development of promise” and if the ethnographer (among his many occupations). industry lent new impetus to the lo- answer was affi rmative, to formulate a profi table He lived with the Indians for many years and cal dogfi sh oil production, and by the business plan. The manuscript is currently in the learned their culture and languages. Among author’s possession, and a copy will be placed the works of this prolifi c writer are two classic late 1800’s and the early 1900’s there at the library at the Southeast Fisheries Science monographs on the Makah and Haidah Indians was an active fi shery for Spiny Dog- Center, Miami, Fla. Mention of trade names which were published by the Smithsonian Insti- or commercial fi rms does not imply endorse- tution. For a biography of this interesting and fi sh in the Canadian Pacifi c Northwest ment by the National Marine Fisheries Service, prolifi c man, see McDonald (1972). (Ketchen, 1986). Oil was extracted NOAA.

75(4) 15 Danish tanning patents, as well as to Allen Rogers was one of the fore- come from the meat, fi ns, oil, and fer- investigate other potential products most experts in leather manufacture tilizer production. from sea animals (primarily sharks) and tanning in the early part of the In early 1919, work was started on a such as oil, fertilizer, fi ns, etc. The twentieth century. He was born in plant for “the reduction of sharks, and Ocean Leather Company was incorpo- Hampton, Maine, on 22 May 1876, the like, to fertilizer, oil, fi ns, hides, rated on 18 April 1917, in Delaware, and graduated from the University of etc.” at Morehead City, N.C. The plant and it started with a small experimen- Maine in 1897 with a B.S. degree in was operational by fall. Lack of funds tal tannery on Tyler Street, Newark, chemistry. He also received an M.S. prevented the company from hiring a N.J. This small facility was insuffi - degree from his alma mater, and in competent supervisory engineer and ciently equipped for attempting the 1902 he received a Ph.D. degree from obtaining suffi cient boats. In 1920-21, necessary tanning experiments, and it the University of Pennsylvania. Ocean Leather sold stock and raised was not until the summer of 1918 that Rogers worked both in industry capital for expansion. the tannery was properly equipped for and academia to solve problems of In the early 1920’s, despite the ex- work. At that time, the company was the leather industry, obtaining sev- perience with whales, fur seals, and unable to produce marketable shark eral patents for industrial processes. many other sea animals, the sea was leather because of the inability to re- He did much pioneering work on the still considered an inexhaustible re- move the dermal denticles of the shark manufacture of leather from marine source. Company literature cited hides, which were described by Ehren- animals, and eventually became one “Unlimited supply of raw materials reich as being “hard as steel.” of the foremost experts in leather and provided by nature at no cost.” Un- In a letter written by Ehrenreich, leather tanning. doubtedly, the stocks of sharks in dated 18 January 1920 (Industrial During World War I Rogers volun- North America in 1920 must have Company manuscript, 1921), to pro- teered for military duty and was com- been immense. The Ocean Leather spective investors, he states that “We missioned as a Major in the Chemical Company management quoted freely were unable to produce a marketable Warfare Service. In 1920 Rogers’ pa- from the over optimistic predictions leather because principally of our in- per “Industrial Uses for the Shark and of the savants of the time. Ichthyolo- ability to remove the shagreen, which Porpoise” received the Grasseli Medal, gist John Treadwell Nichols, of the is dermal denticle upon the skin of the an annual award for the paper, pre- American Museum of Natural His- shark, hard as steel, and which resisted sented before the New York Section of tory, had estimated “that not less than every effort to remove by mechanical the Society of Chemical Industry, that 1,250,000 shark per diem pass in and devices, although experiments were offered the most useful suggestions in out of coastal channels between Cape tried for months and months, using ev- applied chemistry (Bogert, 1920). Hatteras and Cape San Roque.”7 Con- ery sort of device known or which we Through his work in leather pro- sequently, the projections for the num- could invent, and using every known cessing, Rogers became acquainted bers of sharks to be processed at the friction agent, from sand paper to the with Alfred Ehrenreich. In an Ocean plants were quite optimistic. Rog- shark skin itself. All the skins tried Leather Company document dated 31 ers (1920a:9) wrote that “the Ocean out along these lines were ruined. Ex- December 1920, Rogers is listed as Leather Company alone expect [sic] periments were then conducted along one of seven directors of the company to bring their catch to 1000 sharks chemical lines and various processes (Industrial Company ms., 1921). per day, and with an estimated catch were thought to have solved the prob- With the Rogers patents at hand, the by other fi shermen of 1000 daily lem and were patented, only to be perfection of the tanning and dearmor- we would have 2000 sharks averag- discarded. Finally the problem was ing processes, and the prospect of a ing 100 lb., representing a supply solved in 1919, but after the solution monopoly in shark leather process- of edible material to the amount of of the diffi culty, further experiments ing, the company obtained the need- 75,000,000 lb annually.” A company were necessary in order to perfect the ed capital to expand. In 1921, Alfred prospectus for a stock offer (prob- process.” Ehrenreich wrote “Application is now ably ca. 1920) predicted a daily total The solutions to the denticle remov- pending for a patent for ‘de-armored income of $17,076.00 based on a dai- al problem came from two sources. shark skin’ as a manufactured article, ly catch of 1,000 sharks and 100 sea Theodore H. Kohler (1925) developed which our patent attorney, Mr. Albert mammals. and patented a process for removing F. Nathan, believes it will be granted, A second processing plant was start- the denticles from vegetable-tanned and, if granted, he advises that the pat- ed in 1921 at Sanibel Island, Fla. By shark skin using hydrochloric acid, ent will give us a monopoly upon our 1921, the Newark tannery was pro- while Allen Rogers developed and pat- product with whatever process infring- cessing about a thousand skins every ented several processes for removing ers seek to operate, even though by a week (Rogers, 1920b). The company the denticles from fresh hides using different process than the one discov- would continue to grow through the a hydrochloric acid and salt solution ered by us (Industrial Company ms., 1930’s, but not to the rosy expectations (Rogers, 1920a). 1921). Additional revenues would of its founders, despite enjoying a mo-

16 Marine Fisheries Review nopoly in shark leather processing. In had started Shark Industries Inc. in Hi- 200 souls in the splendid isolation of a letter, dated 18 November 19378, to aleah, Fla., acquired the Port Salerno rural Florida of that era. Venice was a Mr. Bolton who had inquired to the plant from Mooney. At about this time, the closest town and had the closest Bass Biological Laboratory about the Stewart Springer (see below) became train station providing access and sup- market for shark skins, Stewart Spring- associated with Shark Industries, Inc., ply routes for the laboratory. The labo- er replied that “So far the industry has and a 1944 paper titled “Vitamin A ratory facilities were granted to faculty apparently not been able to get a suffi - and Shark Liver Oils” by Springer and members of colleges, universities, and cient quantity of hides. I doubt wheth- P. M. French gives their affi liation as other institutions. A charge of one dol- er an increase in the amount offered Shark Industries, Inc., Hialeah, Flor- lar per day was assessed to researchers for hides would produce more. The ida.” In 1944, Shark Industries, Inc., to pay for laboratory maintenance. Ocean Leather Corporation has been was bought by the Borden Company The laboratory had a profi t-making paying 70¢ for a 36” hide to $5.40 and became the Shark Industries Divi- subsidiary, the Zoological Research for a 136” hide. Nurse sharks bring sion of the Borden Company, retaining Supply Company, a biological supply a slightly higher price in proportion. R. M. French as its chief executive. company that sold live and preserved There are average sizes for the vari- Springer would work for that company specimens to researchers and univer- ous species. From the point of view as a production manager from 1947 to sities. In turn, this company had a de- of the catcher it is not worth while to 1949. partment called the Genuine Shark work with sharks less than 8 feet long. Little is known about the activities Products Company that dealt in prod- These produce a hide about 70 inches or catches of the Ocean Leather Com- ucts such as shark hides, shark oil, and long…The Ocean Leather Corporation pany during the early years. According shark-teeth jewelry. of Newark, New Jersey has a practical to Springer (1952) no record of shark In 1936 John Bass hired Stewart monopoly as far as I know.” catches existed prior to 1938, and R. Springer (1906–1991) to be collec- The Ocean Leather Company en- M. French was responsible for estab- tor, specimen preparer, and guide for joyed a long monopoly on the shark lishing a data collection program then. the scientists visiting the laboratory. leather industry for many years. A let- What little is known about catches Springer had attended Butler College ter from Stewart Springer at the Bass was published by Springer (1952). The in Indiana for two years before drop- Laboratory, dated 26 July 19408, ad- Ocean Leather Company lasted until ping out. He spent a year as a chem- dressed to a Louisiana man who was 1964, when it was taken over by the istry technician before heading to asking about the marketing condition Dreher Leather Company. This com- Biloxi, Miss., where he spent several for shark products, reads as follows: pany, founded in 1930 by Adolph Dre- years working as a commercial fi sher- “It is unfortunate but marketing con- her, a German immigrant, had become man and a specimen collector. Spring- ditions for shark products are not so one of the largest leather manufactur- er was a keen naturalist who had a good. I think that Ocean Leather Cor- ers and importers in the United States. great interest in terrestrial creatures, poration of 48 Garden Street, Newark, but his experiences fi shing off Biloxi The Bass Biological Laboratory New Jersey still buys hides and I think and Englewood caused his interests that they will handle also fi ns, oil, and In 1932, John F. Bass, Jr., found- to shift to marine animals, especially teeth on consignment as brokers. This ed the Bass Biological Laboratory in sharks. company has a practical control of the Englewood, Fla., because, according In a letter, dated 22 August 19398, shark leather business and I know of to the brochure printed for the inau- to Charles Breder at the New York no other reliable large purchaser of guration, “there was no year ‘round Aquarium, referring to a recent visit to shark products. A Florida company, collecting station in the eastern and the area, Springer wrote: “I did spend Shark Industries, Inc. at Hollywood, midwestern United States south of a full day with the hammerheads at Florida was buying oil from the livers Beaufort, North Carolina…[and] that the National Museum and I am very but I think their demand is at present it would be advantageous to have such much interested in seeing more from much reduced.” a fi eld laboratory located in Florida the New York area. The beasts fall into The shark fi shing industry expand- near the subtropical belt.” Its purpose fi ve categories which may eventual- ed in the late 1930’s, when Charles was “to furnish research facilities ly be considered of generic order….I L. Mooney established Shark Fisher- to investigators in biological fi elds, suppose that I will be able to sort them ies, Inc. in Port Salerno, Fla., to catch where the fauna, fl ora and climate play out sometime.” sharks in the St. Lucie River and in- an important role in the problem under At the Bass Laboratory, Springer let, and sell their oil and the skins (the observation.” (1938) wrote this fi rst paper on sharks, skins going to Ocean Leather). In the Much of what was learned about titled “Notes on the Sharks of Flori- early 1940’s, Robert M. French, who sharks in the decade of the 1930’s in da,” basically a fi eld guide to the Flori- the United States was learned at the da sharks. It won him the Achievement 8Bass Biological Laboratory Collections, Li- brary and Archives, Mote Marine Laboratory, Bass Marine Laboratory. In the 1930’s, Medal of the Florida Academy of Sci- Sarasota, Fla. Englewood was a small town of some ences for 1938. Six other papers would

75(4) 17 follow: a report of a Great White Shark cious fi sh, readily caught with hook discovered that the liver of the Soupfi n from Florida (Springer, 1939a), on the and line, and are not infrequently taken Shark was the richest source of vita- egg case of the Texas Skate (Springer, by the natives with spears; their livers min A available in commercial quan- 1939b), on two new species of Mus- are large and very fat, the oil furnished tities (Ripley, 1946). Vitamin A was telus (Springer, 1939c), on three new by them being highly prized by the na- generally obtained from cod liver oil, species of the genus Sphyrna (Spring- tives. It is for this latter that they are usually imported from Europe, and er, 1940a), on new hammerhead spe- generally taken. The whites get much the outbreak of World War II in 1938 cies (Springer, 1940b), and one on the of their oil in trade, and use it for all interrupted those shipments. The dis- sex ratios and seasonal distribution of purposes to which whale oil is applied. covery of the potency of shark liver Florida sharks (Springer, 1940c). In I have been assured by an intelligent oil and coupled with the curtailment time, the self-taught Springer would oil refi ner that the oil of this fi sh, when of supplies set up a new market for become one of the most knowledge- properly refi ned, is of a very excel- Soupfi n Sharks in California, and an able shark biologists, authoring more lent quality. I have used when fresh, intensive fi shery soon developed. In than 70 papers, mainly on shark biol- as a substitute for cod-liver-oil, as a one year the California shark fi shery ogy or shark behavior. medicine for consumptive patients. It skyrocketed from minor to major sta- John F. Bass, Jr., died in Decem- seemed effi cacious, and, in one or two tus (Byers, 1940). According to Ripley ber 1939, and the laboratory entered cases, where procurement of the latter (1946), “The fabulous prices offered a slow decline. Springer left in 1940, was impossible, I was led to believe for soupfi n received much public- moving to Islamorada in the Florida that it saved the lives of those who ity. No mention was made of the dif- Keys, where he managed Florida Ma- have taken it. It was given, with alco- fi culties involved in the taking of this rine Products, a commercial shark holic liquors, in doses, commencing at ‘gold.’ Such propaganda infl uenced fi shing operation. At this time, vitamin two teaspoonfuls, increased gradually the gullible of all walks of life to leave A obtained from shark liver oil could to a wine glass full, three times a day” their occupations and invest their time be a profi table operation. (Cooper and Suckley, 1859:367). and money in the new strike9…For Cod liver oil remained a medical a brief period almost anything that The Shark Liver Oil Fishery, staple and a source of vitamins A and would fl oat was used for shark fi sh- 1938–1948 D into the twentieth century. Although ing” (Ripley, 1946:9). “Every soup- The curative properties of cod liv- a cod liver oil industry had existed fi n brought aboard was the equivalent er oil and shark liver oil were known in the United States, it had never as- of $50 hauled out of the sea” (Roedel long before vitamins were identi- sumed important proportions. In 1921, and Ripley, 1950:24), and so the fi sh- fi ed and their therapeutic properties only 6,015 gallons of medicinal cod ery soon took the aspects of a bonanza were ascertained. Although cod liver liver oil were produced, and all this (Ripley, 1946). By 1939 the Ameri- oil was preferred, shark liver oil was oil was being produced, in Massachu- can shark leather fi shery had trans- a ready substitute where cod liver oil setts and Maine, and, shark liver oil formed into the shark liver oil fi shery was unobtainable. George Suckley was being manufactured only in North of the early 1940’s, encompassing both (1830–1869) was a physician and nat- Carolina, in connection with the shark coasts. uralist who explored the Washington leather industry (Tressler, 1923). In On the west coast, the fi shery grew and Oregon Territories with the Pacif- the early 1920’s, most of the cod and from California to Washington. By ic Railroad Surveys in the 1850’s. His shark liver oils used in the United 1939 “a motley assortment of about “Natural History of the Washington States were imported, and the main 600 boats were avidly searching for Territory and Oregon” (Cooper and producers of cod liver oil in the world soupfi n up and down the coast of Cali- Suckley, 1859) described many of the were Norway (1,318,922 gal. in 1920) fornia.” (Ripley, 1946:9). By 1941 a animals he encountered there, includ- and Iceland (513,160 gal. in 1922), similar fi shery for the Soupfi n Shark ing the Pacifi c Spiny Dogfi sh, which with Newfoundland, Canada, Scotland, had developed in Oregon (Westrheim, was named Acanthias suckleyi (now and Japan producing smaller quanti- 1950). This fi shery also targeted the Squalus suckleyi) in his honor by Gi- ties. Iceland was also a producer of Spiny Dogfi sh along the coast of Or- rard (1855). shark liver oil (Tressler, 1923) egon and Washington. The liver of the In the above report, Suckley wrote: In California, prior to 1937, a small dogfi sh was a much lower potency (or “The present dog-fi sh is found abun- shark fi shery existed in California, the amount of vitamin A in it) than dantly in the waters of Puget Sound, based on the Soupfi n (or Tope) Shark, that of the Soupfi n Shark. Brocklesby and at certain seasons of the year re- Galeorhinus galeus. It supplied a lim- (1927) reported that the liver oil of pairs in vast numbers to the more shal- ited local demand for fresh shark fi llets the dogfi sh, Squalus sucklii [suckleyi], low bays and fl ats off the mouths of and for reduction into poultry feed. its affl uent streams. They attain, when Most sharks were caught incidentally 9For an excellent novella that describes shark fi shing during the heyday of the California fi sh- adult, an average size of about three to other fi sheries and were generally ery, read “The Forty Fathom Bank” by Les Gal- and a half or four feet; they are vora- considered worthless. In 1937, it was loway (1994).

18 Marine Fisheries Review was a potent source of vitamin A, becoming increasingly more impor- val battles taking place in other oceans, while Brocklesby (1929) determined tant throughout the Western Hemi- and resulting in high casualties, e.g., that the potency of vitamin D varied sphere because the valuable yield of the battles of Coronel and Falklands in samples from different localities vitamin oils, high quality leather, and in 1914, also occurred in cold waters from less than 10% to about 30% of food products obtained from sharks.” and, in most sinkings, there were few the potency of medicinal cod liver oil. The biological section of the work was or no survivors in those frigid waters. A valuable fi shery soon developed be- done by Henry B. Bigelow and Wil- Life expectancy of a sailor in the cold cause dogfi sh were available in great liam C. Schroeder of the Museum of water was so brief, that most perished quantities (Ripley, 1946). Comparative Zoology at Harvard Uni- of hypothermia before they could be On the east coast, the shark fi sh- versity. Bigelow and Schroeder (1948) rescued. ery of the 1940’s was based in Florida would expand this work into the fi rst The major naval battles of World and was small, seldom involving more volume on sharks, of the monumental War II occurred mainly in the North than fi ve boats in Florida and a total of series “Fishes of the Western North Atlantic and in the tropical Pacifi c. 16 in the southeastern states (Spring- Atlantic.” This work, reprinted in In the North Atlantic, it was primar- er, 1952). This fi shery targeted larger 1975, remained as the reference work ily the battle of the U-boats against sharks of the genera Carcharhinus and on North American sharks for the rest the Allied convoys, with relatively Sphyrna. An east coast liver oil fi shery of the century. The taxonomy of North few engagements of surface forces for the Spiny Dogfi sh failed to develop American sharks was in a state of con- in oceanic waters. The survivors of at this time because of the low potency fusion at the time, and this volume ships torpedoed and sunk at high lati- of the livers of Spiny Dogfi sh of the did much to clear up many problems. tudes had poor chances of reaching a Atlantic coast. The livers of Atlantic The work set such a high standard for life boat and no chance at all if not coast Spiny Dogfi sh contained only the series that subsequent volumes pulled from the water in a short time, 2,000–3,000 units of vitamin A, while would appear slowly over the next few while the U-boat sailors seldom had a Spiny Dogfi sh from the Pacifi c coast decades. chance to escape their damaged “un- contained an average of 15,000 units derwater coffi ns.” By contrast, the The U.S. Navy Era: (Tressler and Lemon, 1960). In these naval war in the Pacifi c Ocean and the Shark Chaser fi sheries the livers were removed from many U-boat attacks in the Caribbean the sharks and the carcasses were dis- In the 1930’s, many people ques- Sea and the South Atlantic Ocean oc- carded in the ocean, although in some tioned whether sharks would attack curred in warm tropical waters, where cases small quantities of dried fi ns and men. Barely two decades before, there sailors could survive fl oating for shark leather were also produced. had been well publicized shark attacks many hours or even days while hop- The west coast fi sheries expanded on humans off New Jersey in 1916, ing for rescue. Rescued sailors and dramatically, with peak landings in but these had become questionable as aviators often told of shipmates be- 1941–43. By the late 1940’s, these there were many unanswered ques- ing attacked and consumed by sharks. fi sheries were depleted because of tions. There had been other publicized Early in this war, military person- overfi shing and fi shing in the nursery attacks on bathers in the late 1800’s nel knew that sharks were a defi nite areas. Finally, the appearance of syn- but those had been forgotten. And in problem for those who ended a battle thetic vitamin A on the market in 1950 1937, the well-known ichthyologist, fl oating in the ocean. caused the fi shery to be discontinued E. W. Gudger, of the American Mu- In February 1941, anthropologist (Springer, 1952). The Soupfi n Shark seum of Natural History, wrote an ar- Henry Field10, of the Field Museum of fi shery of the west coast fi shery has ticle titled “Will Sharks Attack Human Natural History in Chicago, was asked never recovered; a publication on the Beings?”, where he stated that many to serve as “Anthropologist to Presi- marine resources of California (Leet et people, including the noted Dr. Wil- dent Roosevelt,” advising the Presi- al., 1992) describes fi ve current shark liam Beebe, doubted that sharks would dent on the many refugee problems fi sheries but does not even mention the attack humans. Although Gudger cited caused by the war in Europe, and as Soupfi n Shark two clear cases of shark attacks and a member of the Special Intelligence The commercial shark fi shing of concluded his article with the state- Unit at the White House. In 1942 Field the 1940’s gave impetus to the prepa- ment “Sharks Sometimes Do Attack was asked to fl y to Trinidad to inves- ration of the greatest work on sharks Human Beings” [his italics], he ex- tigate complaints regarding U.S. en- of the twentieth century. In 1945, the pressed his and others beliefs that the listed men there. After accomplishing U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service repub- barracuda (Sphyraenidae) was respon- lished a small booklet created by the sible for most alleged cases of shark 10Henry Field (1902–1986). An American an- thropologist, was born in Chicago and educated Anglo-American Caribbean Com- attack. at Sunningdale, Eton, and Oxford (B.A., 1925; mission titled “Guide to Commercial The naval engagements of World M.A., 1930; D.Sc., 1937). He had a keen inter- est in life-saving equipment, and he invented Shark Fishing in the Caribbean Area.” War I were fought mainly in the cold many life saving devices including the shark de- Its foreword stated “Shark fi shing is waters of the North Atlantic. Other na- terrent and a signal mirror for downed airmen.

75(4) 19 his mission, Field reminisced about oping a substance to protect swim- al weeks because sharks did not like his talks with torpedoed merchant sea- mers from attacks by sharks and other the smell of dead sharks. A substance men who had escaped from sharks. In “predatory fi shes,” as barracudas were released by the decomposing sharks his 1953 autobiography, Field wrote: thought to attack swimmers also. On prevented other sharks from feeding. “Night after night I thought of these 26 June 1942, the Bureau of Aeronau- After many tests, the investigators set- men in the water, holding onto rafts or tics, joined by the Merchant Marine tled on copper acetate, the copper ion upturned lifeboats or lying in rubber and the Army Air Force, requested being recognized as the substance that boats, with sharks cutting through the the National Research Council initi- inhibited fi sh from feeding. They add- water around them. I wrote the Presi- ate a project to fi nd a shark deterrent ed a nigrosine dye to mask the scent dent a memorandum suggesting that to protect men adrift in life preservers of the swimmer and to diffuse around we try to develop a shark repellent” (Burden, 1945). A team was soon as- him a dark cloud to screen him from (Field, 1953:329). Field was instructed sembled under William Douglas Bur- view. After tests conducted off St. Au- to discuss the matter with the chief of den, trustee of the American Museum gustine in May 1944, the investiga- the Bureau of Aeronautics of the U.S. of Natural History and founder and tors settled on a simple composition Navy. Knowing little about sharks, president of Marine Studios, as re- for the deterrent: 80% nigrosine black Field called upon his friend, Harvard sponsible investigator. Included were dye, 20% copper acetate, held togeth- zoologist, Harold J. Coolidge11 then Stewart Springer, shark fi sherman and er by a waxy binder of such solubility with the Offi ce of Strategic Services, senior investigator; Arthur McBride, to cause the 6-ounce cake to dissolve and the two discussed the problem. from Marine Studios as junior inves- in seawater over a period of 3–4 hours The two men then called on Admiral tigator; C. M. Breeder, from the New (Burden, 1945). The urgency of the Ralph Davidson, Chief of the Bureau York Aquarium, consulting investiga- times permitted only limited testing of Aeronautics, who became interested tor; David Todd, chemist at Harvard; of the repellent, which was named in the idea, mainly from the psycho- “Dr. French,” consulting chemist; and “Shark Chaser,” but it soon became a logical point of view. A. P. Black, a chemist at the Univer- standard issue of survival gear for the The main problem was convincing sity of Florida (Field, 1953; Gilbert, services. the U.S. Navy that sharks were a prob- 1963). The Navy assigned J. M. Fo- Because the shark hazard was per- lem for those fi nding themselves fl oat- gelberg and C. R. Wallace to the team. ceived as more of a morale or percep- ing in the ocean after a battle. At the Tests were conducted from April 1943 tion problem than a real problem, the time, some senior naval personnel be- to July 1944. Navy tried other solutions while the lieved that “since authentic incidents The initial experiments were carried shark repellent was being developed. of sharks bites were extremely rare, out at Woods Hole Oceanographic In- Naval aviators were particularly prone it was a mistake to recognize the dan- stitution on Smooth Dogfi sh, and de- to ending a battle wet and fl oating in ger by supplying a deterrent” (Burden, scribed by Springer (1955). According the ocean due to battle damage to their 1945:344). One naval offi cer wrote, to Burden (1945:344) the tests carried aircraft, a faulty engine, or running “We have no record of anyone who out “were discouraging. The strongest out of fuel. The stalwart naval aviators had taken an oath to the U.S. Navy fi sh poisons, even in high concentra- thought nothing of confronting a well- ever having been bitten by a shark” tions, failed. The poison killed the trained, armed enemy in the sky or (Field, 1953:330). Nevertheless, it was sharks in about 1/2 h, but in the mean- of landing on a pitching and heaving agreed to proceed with the research time they ate all the bait. Supersonics, carrier deck, but the idea of having to since the elimination of anxiety was an stenches, irritants, and different types deal with sharks when forced to leave important factor in survival. of ink clouds failed.” their aircraft was a different matter. In early June 1942, the Navy Bureau Subsequent testing was carried out These fears prompted the U.S. Navy of Aeronautics was tasked with devel- at La Jolla, Calif., the Gulf of Guay- in 1944 to issue a nonsense-fi lled aquil, Biloxi, Miss., and St. Augus- pamphlet titled “Shark Sense,” (Fig. 11Harold Jefferson Coolidge, Jr. (1904–1985) was an American zoologist and one of the tine, Fla. Of the experiments, Springer 13, 14) designed to allay the fears of founders of the International Union for the Con- (1943:23) wrote: “At some point here naval aviators concerning sharks. It servation of Nature (IUCN), and served as its President from 1966 to 1972 and as Honorary we lost the control afforded by the concluded with the editorial comment President after that. He was also a founding di- chemical work by biological assay” of “The natural conclusion is that the rector of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). He and the experiments became “tests,” shark offers no unusual hazards to a received a B.S. from Harvard in 1927, and the he worked as curator at the Museum of Com- because the diffi culty in eliminating swimming or drifting man; in fact the parative Zoology at Harvard. He was a prima- variables and lack of rigid controls. chances that a man will be attacked by tologist by training, and he published a revision Eventually the investigation focused a shark or a barracuda are infi nitesi- of the genus Gorilla and the fi rst account of bonobos, Pan paniscus. During World War II on shark fi shermen’s lore provided by mal.” (U.S. Navy, 1944:23). he worked for the Offi ce of Strategic Services Springer. It was said that when a long- It is doubtful that anyone took (OSS). He received the Legion of Merit in 1945 and the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation line fi shing for shark was lost, the area “Shark Sense” too seriously, and by Prize in 1980. was ruined to shark fi shing for sever- the end of the war, numerous inci-

20 Marine Fisheries Review dents demonstrated that sharks would attack fl oating sailors or downed avia- tors. Perhaps the most famous of these incidents was the sinking of the cruis- er USS Indianapolis. The ship carried 1,196 men on board when it was tor- pedoed on the night of 30 July 1945. Some 400 men went down with the ship. Of the 800 men that went into the water, only 316 survived after four days of drifting in the tropical water. Many were taken by sharks. The Ac- tion Reports (see below) of the rescu- ers left no doubt that sharks had been responsible for many of the deaths. One of the rescuers, the Captain of Figure 13.—Illustration of a downed airman using the “Shark Chaser” (U.S. Navy, the USS Helm wrote: “About half of 1944). the bodies were shark-bitten, some to such degree that they more nearly re- sembled skeletons. From one to four sharks were in the immediate area of the ship at all times. At one time, two sharks were attacking a body no more than fi fty yards from the ship, and continued to do so until driven off by rifl e fi re” (Lech, 1982:157–58). Subsequent editions of “Shark Sense” no longer said that the chances of shipwrecked sailors and downed air- men being attacked by sharks were “infi nitesimal.” The 1959 version of “Shark Sense” extols the virtues of the “Shark Chas- er,” and its nigrosine dye cake that downed aviators were supposed to release into the water, with the as- sumption that it would repel sharks and hide the aviator from the shark’s sight (U.S. Navy, 1959). It closed with: “Your best protection is your Shark Chaser. Sharks take one look at the magnifi cent black aura surrounding a downed pilot and recall urgent busi- ness elsewhere.” In the decades following World War II, there were numerous reports con- cerning the ineffectiveness of “Shark Chaser.” In a report titled “Airmen Against the Sea,” Llano (1955) ana- lyzed a sample of 607 accounts of sur- vival experiences after ditching at sea from 1940 to 1955. Llano (1955:72) wrote that “Unfortunately the narra- tives provide no evidence of “Shark Chaser” used under survival condi- Figure 14.—Cover of “Shark Sense” (U.S. Navy, 1944). tions with sharks present. Skin divers

75(4) 21 [of the British Shallow Water Diving practical justifi cation (i.e., a Navy After the early 1970’s, the percep- Unit] who have used it put little faith need) in almost every phase of basic tion of the danger that sharks posed to on it… Beyond question the great- research.” downed aviators had come full circle est value of the “Shark Chaser” was In 1958 ONR established the and it was again considered negligi- the mental relief and sense of securi- Shark Research Panel of the Ameri- ble. Several factors contributed to that ty it afforded the men who had it on can Institute of Biological Sciences perception. The greater reliability and hand.” Nevertheless, “Shark Chaser” (AIBS). Through this panel and oth- ruggedness of jet engines reduced the remained in the military supply system er direct means, ONR generously number of aviators having to ditch their until 1976, when it was discontinued, funded research and conferences to aircraft due to engine failure or battle based on recommendations from the develop means of protecting naval damage. The development of electron- Offi ce of Naval Research. In his ex- personnel from shark attack. One ic personnel or aircraft locator devices cellent review of the shark repellent of the fi rst accomplishments of the (such as Emergency Locator Transmit- problem, Baldridge (1990), referred to Shark Research Panel was to estab- ters, Crash Position Indicators, etc.) “Shark Chaser” as “a useful psycho- lish, with ONR funds, the worldwide during the Vietnam War reduced the logical crutch for the times.” That is data collection system known as the possibility of personnel spending long all it was, but its creation marked the “Shark Attack File” at the Smithso- times fl oating in the ocean. beginning of research into the sensory nian Institution. Under the direction Baldridge (1969) had demonstrated biology and behavior of sharks. of Perry Gilbert, data was collected the impracticability of deterring shark from newspapers around the world, attacks by waterborne chemicals, so The Offi ce of Naval Research Era and from direct sources whenever the idea of shark repellents had lost I have decided to call this period the possible, on some 1,500 shark at- some of its appeal. However, through Offi ce of Naval Research Era, as be- tacks over nine years. The data was the mid 1980’s, ONR continued to ing different from the previous U.S. summarized in 1974 by David Bal- fund the search for shark repellents. Navy era when the sole interest was dridge in “Shark attack: a program of Much money and research effort was on developing a shark deterrent. In data reduction and analysis,” which spent on pardaxin, a secretion of the terms of the knowledge of sharks and contains most of what we know to- Moses Sole, Pardachirus marmora- shark research, this was the fi rst time day about shark attacks. tus, which has shark repelling prop- biologists studied the biology and the From the late 1950’s to the 1980’s, erties (Clark and George, 1979), but sensory mechanisms of sharks and ONR funding was responsible for no practical applications were found. tried to understand their behavior. much of what was learned about the All these factors contributed to ONR Previously, ichthyologists were satis- sensory biology of sharks. Many shark losing interest in funding research on fi ed with being able to distinguish and researchers (Eugenie Clark, Perry Gil- shark repellents. name species of sharks, and sharks bert, Samuel Gruber, A. J. Kalmijn, ONR’s interest in sharks was not were only mentioned briefl y in fau- and H. D. Baldridge, among others) limited to their sensory abilities and nistic works with but few facts about were funded by ONR to carry out re- shark repellents. According to a 1982 them search to elucidate the sensory biology article by Gerald D. Sturges, in the The Offi ce of Naval Research of sharks. This work resulted in some Orlando Sentinel, the Navy founded (ONR) was created within the De- excellent books that summarized the a project “to convert the shark into a partment of the Navy in 1946 for the available knowledge of shark sensory remote-controlled torpedo that could purpose of encouraging and foster- biology and behavior. The fi rst of these ram a ship while carrying a load of ing research related to naval inter- volumes was “Sharks and Survival,” explosives” (Sturges, 1982; Fig. 15). ests and national security. Starting in edited by P. W. Gilbert (1963) “with The research was conducted under the late 1950’s the ONR embarked the cooperation of the members of the the name of Project Headgear at Mote in a research and data collection pro- Shark Research Panel of the Ameri- Marine Laboratory (Sarasota, Fla.) grams to learn about sharks, their be- can Institute of Biological Sciences.” and the Lerner Marine Laboratory havior, and shark attacks on humans. This volume was followed by “Sharks, (Bahamas) from 1958 to 1971. Sturges These programs were created, de- Skates, and Rays,” edited by P. W. Gil- (1982) wrote that the program “ended veloped, and managed by one man, bert, R. F. Mathewson, and D. P. Rall unsuccessfully after 13 years of test- Sidney R. Galler, who headed the Bi- (1967), and by “Sensory Biology of ing. However, the Navy continues to ology Branch of ONR. According to Sharks, Skates, and Rays,” edited by classify it as secret and refuses to re- Captain H. David Baldridge12, USN, E. S. Hodgson and R. F. Mathewson lease anything. The Offi ce of Naval “If you had a good idea for research (1978). The last of these useful works Research said only that ‘the report is on sharks, you went to Sid and almost was “Shark Repellents from the Sea,” classifi ed secret and is currently being surely would get funding, for he saw edited by B. J. Zahuranec (1983), who reviewed for declassifi cation.’” My at- 12Baldridge, Capt. H. D., USN. Letter to author, had led ONR’s shark research for tempt to obtain information about the 21 April 2013. many years. project from ONR in 2013 also yield-

22 Marine Fisheries Review “Jaws,” shark fi shermen saw them- or fully utilized by U.S. commercial selves as heroes ridding the seas of fi sheries. While there was a strong sharks. This unfortunate attitude and U.S. recreational fi shery for sharks, the ecological catastrophe lasted for near- commercial fi sheries had not targeted ly two decades. The U.S. recreational sharks since the late 1940’s. With the shark landings for 1979 were 11,512 t; exceptions of Porbeagle, Lamna na- by 1989 they had decreased to 1,666 t sus, that had been targeted in the early (NOAA, 1992), and to 660 t by 2002 1960’s off New England (Campana et (NOAA, 2003). al., 2001), and Dusky Sharks, Carcha- rhinus obscurus, that had been taken The Shark Fin Fishery Era incidentally in Japanese tuna fi sheries In 1972, after some 25 years of in the Gulf of Mexico in the same de- open antagonism and hostility be- cade, the shark stocks in the southeast- tween the United States and The ern U.S. waters were relatively high People’s Republic of China, and af- (Castro, 2011). ter extensive diplomatic negotiations, It took about a decade for business President Richard Nixon visited Chi- and fi nancial channels to develop, and na, as a step in the normalization of by the late 1970’s substantial changes relations between the two countries. had occurred in shark utilization. The During the next two decades, complex high prices paid for the fi ns encour- economic and fi nancial ties developed aged entry into the shark fi shery. The steadily between the two countries. tuna and swordfi sh fi sheries that pre- Figure 15.—Project Headgear (Stur- In due time, the combination of Chi- viously had discarded sharks (dead or ges, 1982). nese energy and cheap labor, Ameri- alive) now began to keep sharks for can capital and know-how, and other their fi ns. The low price paid for the factors helped make China the manu- meat, resulted in fi shermen just remov- ed nothing, and I could not determine facturing colossus of the early twenty- ing the fi ns from sharks and discarding whether the project was declassifi ed or fi rst century. the shark into the ocean, thus saving not. China’s economic boom, beginning their freezer space for the more lucra- in the late twentieth century, resulted tive tunas and swordfi sh. This wasteful The “Jaws” Era in an improved standard of living for practice became known as “fi nning.” In 1974, Peter Benchley’s great nov- some segments of the Chinese popu- In just one decade, the U.S. com- el “Jaws” was published, followed a lation, and a greater proportion of so- mercial shark landings grew from 135t year later by the movie of the same ti- ciety was able to afford luxuries that in 1979 to 7,172 t in 1989 (NOAA, tle. The movie became one of the most had previously been out of reach. One 1992). Conservation organizations infl uential movies in history, affecting of these luxuries is shark fi n soup. In and regulatory agencies were both the attitudes of millions of people to- China, a soup utilizing the fi bers found concerned about the rapid growth of wards sharks and the ocean. The mov- in shark fi ns has been considered a the unregulated shark fi shery. On 3 ie’s powerful images were remembered symbol of prosperity and health for June 1989, the fi ve east coat fi shery every time the movie-watchers entered centuries. It is a dish served at spe- management councils requested that a beach in the following decades. The cial occasions such as weddings, and the Secretary of Commerce develop movie also set off a shark killing fren- a demonstration of wealth and class. a fi shery management plan for the zy that lasted decades. Consequently, the demand of shark fi n shark fi shery. Their concern was that it Shortly after the movie appeared, soup increased substantially. would take too long for the fi ve coun- shark fi shing as sport became popu- Soon after the establishment of dip- cils to develop their own, and that, in lar, and in the next decade hundreds lomatic relations between the United view of the rapidly growing fi shery, of shark fi shing clubs and tourna- States and China in January 1979, the delay could cause irreparable dam- ments appeared along the U.S. east American and Chinese merchants were age to the shark stocks. coast. These tournaments were held fi guring out what business could be A team of NOAA personnel was as- monthly at many seaside locations conducted with the other. When Chi- sembled in 1989 to prepare a manage- during the summer months. The movie nese merchants expressed the growing ment plan for sharks of the east coast. caused such antipathy towards sharks demand for shark fi ns, American en- The National Marine Fisheries Service that tournaments had prize categories trepreneurs sought to fulfi ll it. The de- had little data on shark catches, and for “the most sharks killed” and the mand became high in China and other what existed was not broken down by “greatest number of pounds of shark Asian countries, and sharks were one species. So personnel set out to try to landed.” Emulating the fi sherman in of the few fi sh resources not targeted obtain data on shark landings from the

75(4) 23 commercial industry. Little data were Baldridge, H. D., Jr. 1974. Shark attack: a pro- ______. 1906. The chimaeroid fi shes and their gram of data reduction and analysis. Contrib. development. Carnegie Inst. Wash., D.C., 194 available because, in general, fi sher- Mote Mar. Lab. 1(2):1–98. p. men did not record the information ______. 1969. Analytic indication of the im- ______. 1962. A bibliography of fi shes. [fi rst needed for stock assessment purposes practicability of incapacitating an attacking pub. 1916]. Russell & Russell. N.Y., vol. 1, shark by exposure to waterborne drugs. Mil. 718 p.; vol. 2, 702 p.; vol. 3, 707 p. (e.g., landings by species, catch per Med. 134:1450–1453. De Kay, J. E. 1842. Zoology of New-York or the unit effort, etc.) or for the regulation ______. 1990. Shark repellent: not yet, may- New-York fauna. Part IV. The fi shes. W. & A. of the fi shery. Nevertheless, a shark be never. Mil. Med. 155:358–361. White & J. Visscher, Albany, 415 p. Barber, R. 1992. Bestiary: being an English ver- De Ulloa, A. 2002 [1748]. Viaje a la América fi shery management plan was prepared sion of the Bodleian Library, Oxford MS 764 Meridional. Dastin, Madrid, vol. 1, 539 p.; (NOAA, 1992), and published 10 De- with all the original miniatures reproduced in vol. 2, 587 p. cember 1992. The plan was data-defi - facsimile. The Folio Soc., Lond., 205 p. Egmond, F., and P. Mason (Editors). 2003. The Barney, S. A., W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach, and O. whale book. Whales and other marine ani- cient for the reasons cited, and some of Berghof. 2011. The etymologies of Isidore of mals as described by Adriaen Coenen in its predictions would prove wrong. But Seville. Camb. Univ. Press, U.K., 476 p. 1585. Reaktion Books, Lond., 208 p. the key to its success was a provision Belon, P. 1551. L’Histoire naturelle des estrang- Field, H. 1953. The track of man: adventures of es poissons marins. Regnaud Chaudiere, Par- an anthropologist. Doubleday, N.Y., 448 p. for change and improvement by des- is, 61 p. Galloway, L. 1994. The forty fathom bank. ignating an “Operational Team” which ______. 1555. L’Histoire de la nature des Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 108 p. oyseaux. Paris, 410 p. Garboe, A. 1958. The earliest geological treatise could amend the plan as new data were Benchley, P. 1974. Jaws. Doubleday Co., Garden (1667) by Nicolaus Steno. MacMillan & Co. obtained. Over the next two decades City, N.Y., 311 p. Ltd., Lond., 51 p. the plan was amended many times. The Bigelow, H. B., and W. C. Schroeder. 1948. Garman, S. 1885–1886. I.-Chlamydoselachus Fishes of the western North Atlantic, Lance- anguineus Garm.—A living species of plan not only protected the shark stocks lets, cyclostomes, and sharks. Sears Found. cladodont shark. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. but it ushered a new era of research on Mar. Res., Yale Univ., New Haven, Mem. 1, Harvard. Coll. 12(1):1–35. sharks. The plan and its effects will be pt. 1, 576 p. ______. 1913. The plagiostoma (sharks, Bodleian Library. 2009. Book of beasts: a fac- skates, and rays). Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool. covered in a future article. simile of MS Bodley 764. Bodleian Library, Harvard Coll. 36, vol.1, 515 p.; vol. 2, 75 Univ. Oxford, U.K., 137 p. plates, unpagin. Acknowledgments Bogert, M. T. 1920. Dr. Allen Rogers receives Gedosch, T. F. 1968. A note on the dogfi sh the Grasseli Medal. Presentation address. oil industry of Washington Territory. Pac. This manuscript originated in a pre- Chem. Metall. Engr. 28(16):794. Northw. Q. 59 (2):100–102. sentation request from W. B. Driggers Brocklesby, H. N. 1927. Determination of vi- Gilbert, P. W. 1963. Sharks and survival. D.C. tamin A content in liver oil of the dog- III, E. R. Hoffmayer, and J. A. Su- Heath & Co., Boston, 578 p. fi sh Squalus sucklii. Can. Chem. Metall. ______, R. F. Mathewson, and D. P. Rall. 11:238–239. likowski, organizers of a symposium 1967. Sharks, skates, and rays. Johns Hop- ______. 1929. Vitamin D content of the titled “Life history characteristics of liver oil of the dogfi sh. Can. Chem. Metall. kins Press, Baltimore, 624 p. elasmobranch fi shes from the west- 13:74–77. Girard, C. 1855. Characteristics of some car- tilaginous fi shes of the Pacifi c coast of ern North Atlantic.” When I could not Burden, W. D. 1945. Development of a shark de- terrent. Air Surgeon’s Bull. 11:344– 347. North America. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. meet the symposium deadline for sub- Byers, R. D. 1940. The California shark fi shery. 7:196–197. mission of the article, they prevailed Calif. Fish Game 26(1):23–38. Goode, G. B. 1884. The fi sheries and fi shery in- dustries of the United States. Section I. Nat- that I write the article. I thank them Campana, S. E., L. Marks, W. Joyce, and S. Har- ley. 2001. Analytical assessment of the por- ural history of useful aquatic animals. U.S. for inducing me to do it. I thank librar- beagle shark (Lamna nasus) population in the Comm. Fish Fish., Gov. Print. Off., Wash. ians Susan Stover (Mote Marine Labo- northwest Atlantic, with estimates of long- D.C., 895 p. term sustainable yield. Ottawa: Can. Sci. Adv. Gregory, W. K. 1930–1933. Memorial of Bash- ratory) and Maria Bello (NOAA) for Secr., Res. Doc. 2001/067, 59 p. ford Dean, 1867–1928. In E. W. Gudger (Edi- their splendid help in locating obscure Castro, J. I. 1993. The shark nursery of Bulls tor), The Bashford Dean memorial volume, references. Bay, South Carolina, with a review of the p.1–42. Archaic fi shes. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., shark nurseries of the southeastern coast N.Y. Literature Cited of the United States. Environ. Biol. Fish. Gudger, E. W. 1907. A note on the hammer- 38:37–48. head shark and its food. Science, N.S. Aelian. 1971. On the characteristics of ani- ______. 2002. On the origins of the Spanish 25(652):1,005–1,006. mals. [Transl. A. F. Sholfi eld.]. Harvard Univ. word ‘tiburón’, and the English word ‘shark’. ______. 1912. Natural history notes on Press, Camb., Mass., vol. 1, 359 p; vol. 2, 413 Environ. Biol. Fish. 65:249–253. some Beaufort, N.C., fi shes, 1910–1911. p.; vol. 3, 445 p. ______. 2011. The sharks of North America. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 25:141–156. Allen, J.A. 1877. The West Indian seal (Mona- Oxford Univ. Press, N.Y., 613 p. ______. 1914. History of the spotted ea- chus tropicalis). Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. Clark, E., and A. George. 1979. Toxic soles, Par- gle ray, Aetobatus narinari, together with a 2(1):1–34. dachirus marmoratus from the Red Sea and study of its external structures. Pap. Tortugas Allis, E. P., Jr. 1923. The cranial anatomy of a P. pavoninus from Japan, with notes on other Lab., Carnegie Inst. Wash. 6:241–323. Chlamydoselachus anguineus. Acta Zool. species. Environ. Biol. Fish. 4(2):103–123. ______. 1924. Pliny’s historia naturalis. 4:123–221. Cooper, J. G, and G. Suckley, 1859. The natu- Isis 6(3):269–281. Anglo-American Caribbean Commission. 1945. ral history of Washington Territory. Bailliere ______. 1930–1933. The Bashford Dean Guide to commercial shark fi shing in the Ca- Brothers, N.Y., 680 p. memorial volume. Archaic fi shes. Am. Mus. ribbean area. U.S. Dep. Int., Fish Wildl. Serv., Curley, M. J. 1979. Physilogus: a medieval book Nat. Hist., N.Y., vol. 1, p.1–319; vol. 2, p. Fishery Leafl et 135, 149 p. of nature lore. Univ. Texas Press, Austin, 92 331–802. Aristotle. 1970. Historia Animalium. [Transl. A. p. ______. 1934. The fi ve great naturalists of L. Peck]. Harvard Univ. Press, Camb., Mass., Curtius, E. R. 1953. European literature and the the sixteenth century: Belon, Rondelet, Salvi- vol. 1, 239 p.; vol. 2, 414 p. Latin Middle Ages. Bollingen Ser. 36, Princ- ani, Gesner and Aldrovandi: A chapter in the ______. 1979. Generation of animals. [Transl. eton Univ. Press, Princeton, N. J., 662 p. history of ichthyology. Isis 22(63): 21–40. A. L. Peck]. Harvard Univ. Press, Camb., Dean, B. 1895. Fishes, living and fossil. Mac- ______. 1937. Will sharks attack human Mass., 608 p. millan & Co. N.Y., 300 p. beings? Nat. Hist. 40(1):417–418.

24 Marine Fisheries Review ______. 1940. The breeding habits, re- Llano, G. A. 1955. Airmen against the sea. An Seler, E. 1902. Codex Fejérvary-Mayer. An old productive organs, and external embryonic analysis of sea survival experiences. Arc- picture manuscript in the Liverpool Free Pub- development of Chlamydoselachus based on tic, Desert, Trop. Inf. Cent., Res. Stud. Inst., lic Museum. Edinburgh Univ. Press, Lond., notes and drawings left by Bashford Dean. In Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., ADTIC Publ. 228 p. E. W. Gudger (Editor), The Bashford Dean G-104, 114 p. Simpfendorfer, C. A., and N. E. Milward. 1993. memorial volume, archaic fi shes, article VII, Lawson, J. 1709. A new voyage to Carolina. Utilization of a tropical bay as a nursery area p. 523–633. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., N.Y. Facs. publ. Readex Microprint, Lond., in by sharks of the families Carcharhinidae and ______. 1948a. Stomach contents of tiger 1966, 258 p. Sphyrnidae. Environ. Biol. 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Vilhelm Tryde, Copenhagen, vol. 1, opment of Heterodontus (Cestracion) japoni- tiger sharks, Galeocerdo tigrinus, caught at 264 p.; vol. 2, 366 p. cus based on notes and drawings by Bashford Key West, Florida, with emphasis on food MacKenzie, C. L. Jr., L. Troccoli, and L. B. Dean. In E. W. Gudger (Editor), The Bash- ford Dean memorial volume, archaic fi shes, and feeding habits. Copeia 1949(1):39–47. Leon S. 2003. History of the Atlantic pearl- article VII, p. 649–770. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., ______. 1950. The history of the discov- oyster, Pinctata imbricata, industry in Ven- ery (1600–1680) of the spiral valve in the N.Y. ezuela and Colombia, with biological and Smith, J. V. C. 1833. Natural history of the fi shes large intestine of elasmobranchs and a gan- ecological observations. Mar. Fish. Rev. oid. J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. 66(1):3–69. of Massachusetts, embracing a practical essay 65(1):1–20. on angling. 1970 repr. by Freshet Press, Inc., ______. 1951. Bibliography of Dr. E. W. McDonald, L. 1972. Swan among the Indians: Gudger’s contributions to the history of ich- N.Y., 399 p. Life of James G. Swan, 1818–1900. Binfords Springer, S. 1938. Notes on the sharks of Flori- thyology (1905–1951). Isis 42(3):237–242. & Mort, Portland, Oreg., 233 p. ______. 1952. Oviparity—the mode of da. Proc. Fla. Acad. Sci. 3:9–41. Müller, J., and J. Henle. 1838–1841. System- ______. 1939a. The great white shark, Car- reproduction of the whale shark, Rhineodon atische Beschereibung der Plagiostomen. Ver- typus. Copeia 1952(4):266–267. charodon carcharias (Linnaeus), in Florida lag von Veit und Co., Berlin, 200 p. waters. Copeia 1939(2):114–115. ______and B. G. Smith. 1933. The natu- NOAA. 1992. Fishery Management Plan for ral history of the frilled shark Chlamydose- ______. 1939b. The egg case of the Texas Sharks of the Atlantic Ocean. U.S. Dep. skate. Copeia 1939(4):237. lachus anguineus. In E. W. Gudger (Editor), Commer., NOAA, Natl. Mar. Fish. 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Fish Game, Fish Bull. 64. Inst., Seventh Annu. Sess., Havana, Cuba, U.S. Patent Off. Wash. D.C. Roedel, P. M., and W. E. Ripley. 1950. Califor- Nov. 1954, p. 159–163. Univ. Miami, Coral Kozuch, L. 1993. Sharks and shark products nia sharks and rays. Bur. Mar. Fish., Div. Fish Gables. in prehistoric South Florida. Inst. Archeol. Game, Fish. Bull. 75, 88 p. ______and P. M. French. 1944. Vita- Paleoenviron. Stud. Monogr. 2, Univ. Fla., Rogers, A. 1920a. Industrial uses for the shark min A in shark liver oils. Ind. Engr. Chem. Gainesville, 52 p. and porpoise. J. Soc. Chem. Ind. 39(21): 36(2):190–191. Lacey, R., and D. Danziger. 1999. The year 9–10. Storer, D. H. 1845. A synopsis of the fi shes of 1000: what life was like at the turn of the fi rst ______. 1920b. Acceptance of the Grasselli North America. Mem. Am. Acad. Arts Sci., millenium: an Englishman’s world. Little, Medal. Chem. Metall. Engr. 28(16):794. N. Ser. vol. 2:253–550. [Facs. repr. 1972]. A. Brown Co., N.Y., 230 p. 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75(4) 25 Tressler, D. K. 1923. Marine products of com- 00-80Q-14, OPNAV 33-6. Aviat. Train. Westrheim, S. J. 1950. The 1949 soupfi n shark merce. Chem. Prod. Co., N.Y., 762 p. Div., Off. Chief Naval Oper., Wash., D.C., 23 fi shery of Oregon. Fish Comm. Res. Briefs ______and J. M. Lemon. 1960. Marine p. 3(1):39–49. products of commerce, 3rd printing. Reinhold ______. 1959. Shark sense. NAVAER 00- Zahuranec, B. J. (Editor). 1983. Shark repellents Publ. Corp., N.Y., 782 p. 80Q-14. Aviat. Train. Div., Off. Chief Naval from the sea. AAAS Selected Symp. Ser., U.S. Navy. 1944. Shark sense. NAVAER Oper., Wash., D.C., 44 p. Westview Press, Colo., 210 p.

26 Marine Fisheries Review