The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-24
SHARKS AS MERCHANDISE.
Beginning to Look Toward the
Tiger of the Sen for Profit.


BEGINNING to Look Toward the
Tiger of the Sen for PROFIT.
Commerce proposes now to convert
the famous and almost sacred sharks
of the bay of San Juan del Norte in
Nicaragua into factory products.
Americans have been tempted by the
vast number and sizes of the sharks
down there and the ease of catching
them. into studying possible uses for
the monsters and they find that there
is lots of money in sharks Indeed,
there hardly is a part of the wicked
brute that cannot be utilized for some
thing.
For instance, shark fins, when prop
erly prepared, furnish a jelly that
makes a really delicious soup. There
is an excellent market for it every
where where there are Chinese, and il
it were once offered as an American
product 1t would not be long before
Americans and others would relish 1t
as much as the Chinese do now.
The livers of sharks produce a splen-
did clear oil that is very valuable, be-
ing in great demand for watches,
clocks and fine guns. 1t is held in al
most as much estimation as is the oil
obtained from porpoise and dogfish liv
er, which is the finest animal oil there
is.
The skin of sharks is of a beautiful
FURNISHED gray or blush color. 1t
looks like finely grained leather, be-
cause it is full of tiny prickles that all
set one way. They are quite Invisible
to the naked eye, but there are so
many of them and they are so finely set
that they give the dried skin its rich
effect.
Minute as these prickles or thorns
are, they are so powerful that it Is
almost impossible to rub the hand over
a sharks skin in a direction opposite
to that in which they point.
This property makes the skin val
liable for the manufacture of 'sha-
green" and as it is both tough and
easy to work, shark skin can be used
for a multitude of purposes in which
decorative leather effects are applica-
BILE.
Even the bones Of sharks are useful
The backbone is in constant demand
by walking cane manufacturers. They
pass a thin malacca or steel cane
through the beautifully polished and
perfectly round vertebrate and sell
them for high prices as curiosities.
The teeth and jawbones are saleable
readily to collectors and tourists. A
gaping pair of jaws from twelve or
fourteen-foot shark makes a striking
and decorative ornament.
When the American business man
gets after the sharks in the bay of
San Juan del Norte, there will be vast
dismay in the tropical fish world, for
the natives have left the monsters
practically undisturbed for centuries
and the result is that from Greytown
nd flnA t.
with sharks of all species ranging in
size from two feet to fifteen and even
more.
Among them are the swift blue
sharks, the savage striped tiger sharks,
spotted leopard sharks, hideous ham
merheads, threshers or swingle tails,
and the immense but lazy basking
sharks, which often grow so large that
they have been mistaken for whales.
Nobody ever tried to destroy them
and, with the exception of an occa-
sional toruist, nobody ever fished for
them either for sport or market So
they have become holder and holder
each year, until now they will swim
close alongside of big and little boats,
watching them closely in the hope that
something will fall overheard.
The respect in which the natives APP
pear to hold the sharks often leads
casual VISITOR 10 believe that they
have superstitious regard for them.
But the real truth of the matter is
that the lazy and unambitious Central
Americans leave the sharks alone be-
cause the greedy fish save them the
trouble of keeping their harbors clean.
In that hot climate, offal that falls
overheard and floats, decays so quick
ly that even the disinfecting qualities
OF SAT- water have no practical effect
on II. And everybody in the seacoast
towns throws waste matter into the
naroor at ms own sweet will. In addi-
tlon, the ships throw everything that
they do not need into the water
30, II IT were not for the greedy
sharks, the Central American waters
would soon be choked with decaving
rupolsn and the people would have TO
clean them out themselves. AS II is
however. the sharks kindly act as scay-
engers and the natives can sit in the
shade and doze.
shark in the bay of San Juan del
Nortre He was almost eighteen feet
long and every boatman knew him as
well as he knew his neighbors. They
called him the Captain of the Port !"
and though he was accused OF eating
a man now and then. nobody thought
OF interfering with him. At last he
So ~ oF1AbNaiinB ANdt ne would
rush at boats II they came too close 20
him.
Then, one day. he killed "A man who
was working FOR the government on
a breakwater. The French engineer IN
charge OF the work M once prepared
70 capture ana kin the brute, but some
o. the natives actually demonstrated.
They declared that the Captain Of the
Port must have been hurt By the
man ana thus anEered into killing
him.
However. the engineer paid no at
tention end before long ne had he
Captain" hooked. Bur the mighty
nsh broke the liBe. He was hooked =
second time within 3 few minutes ara