The Secret Life of Sharks by A. Peter Klimey PH.D

Author:A. Peter Klimey, PH.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

We had now made four three-day cruises to prime white shark habitat without attracting a single white shark to the proximity of the Susan K. We had chummed with massive amounts of blood and ground fish as others had done in South Africa and Australia. I asked myself, “What are we doing wrong?” Once again, I considered the obvious possibility that the sharks were avoiding us because they were afraid of the research vessel. Perhaps it was its size, or the generators producing vibrational noise, well within the shark’s hearing range. Furthermore, it was not easy to take the Susan K to these remote sites, bait for several days, and then, if a shark were to be tagged, to immediately mount a long-term tracking effort.

I decided to search for the sharks from now on in my small, 23-foot outboard skiff, which would be unlikely to frighten the sharks. When I confided my plans to Deke, he shrugged and, with his quick sense of humor, reminded me of what the white shark did to the trawler in Jaws. Actually, I had little fear that the white sharks would try to sink my Mexican panga. It was as long as the largest white shark yet captured, and even one that size would likely consider us a competitor and not prey. The shark would probably perform some kind of noncontact aggressive display in order to frighten us and avoid being injured. It also made sense to be based at the South Farallon Islands. The likelihood of finding a shark there was the highest. Had we not attracted our sole white shark there? An assistant and I could stay at the field station on the island, searching for sharks aboard the skiff each day. If we succeeded in tagging a shark, the Susan K could be summoned and the shark could be tracked with the larger vessel. Finally, an island would be safer to work from than the coast of the mainland because I could seek protection from winds coming from any direction by driving the boat around to that coastline of the island sheltered from the wind.

On October 18, 1985, Deke took David Spinelli and myself out to the Farallon Islands aboard the Susan K. David was not only a smart young man, having recently graduated from the University of California at Davis, but was strong and physically fit, thanks to his having been a lineman on the football team. This was just the kind of person that I needed to work with in this rough-and-tumble study. The Susan K was loaded to capacity with scientific gear and bait for attracting sharks. Let me give you an inventory of our first cargo of shark attractants. The Susan K’ s freezer had been filled with one 5-gallon bucket of blood, six 50-pound slabs of ground fish, and two sheep halves. Two 5-foot-long coolers were on either side of the boat: each contained a bucket of blood, two slabs of ground fish, and a burlap bag of ground mackerel.

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