The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1933-01-28
THE KEY WEST SHARK FISHERY
Making A Profit Out Of A Loss,
An Asset OF A Liability
(By GEORGE ALLAN ENcLAND)
Continued From Yesterday
The Slaughter Continues

I The boat was now SHAMELESS,
with blood and bilge smashing
about in the bottom, and the
| stencil of slaughter very strong.
Barefooted, the crew waded in a
fred muck, their feet, legs and
dungarees growing crimson, which
tadded to their piratical pic
turesqueness. Overheated, the en-
CINE quit and refused to bulge,
but nobody cared. We were get
ting into the kill, and a little mat
tier like dead engine, 40 miles
from home, meant nothing.
| The rest of the net yielded sew
| eral more sharks, mostly nurses"
These had two nostrils, each with
| a barbel; the color was a reddish
Thrown, with rather deeper red
ORGANIZATIONS. They bled freely
land writhed a long time after be-
ing landed. Sharks seem hard
| fellows to kill. Gluttons for
punishment. They stand a lot of
DISCRIMINATING.
/ Reaching the end of the first
Enet, the crew pulled it up. with
Ianchor and flag. A tangled mass
lit was, too; I wondered how in
the world they were ever going TO
buntwist, repair, and make it ready
flor service again. The second net
Ibegan with saw-fish, not so live
lily scrapper as the average shark,
Ebut still formidable enough. His
saw got tangled in the net so that
Enothing but cutting would free it.
| This big fish was ten or twelve
feet long, without his saw. In
dealing with this species, the
fishermen always chop off the saw
lat once. A freshly-caught saw
| fish is a lovely light creamy-green
Ecolor; handsome creature, but
his saw is worth respecting. One
Eslash from that formidable weapon
may easily inflict terrible in
Ljuries.
i Lashing the sea to froth, a
hammerhead shark came next, as
Lstrange and grim a creature as
Iyou could wish to see. He wound
the net up into what looked like
La single rope. and the crew had
1.-the devils own time to get him
I3out of it. took what pictures I
Iicould; but in shark-fishing it is all
lIsuch a violent and disordered bat
Title that good pictures are difficult
ito get. Most of the sharks, /
llnoted, made kind of grunting or
Ehissing noise when belabored with
| the crowbar, and the crew did
much the same, as they pounded.
The sound was about $3.50, shark
land human. One shark in the
second net was so big they
couldn't lift it by the jaw, but had
to snatch a line round it's tail and
swing it aboard head-downward.
| Nets, anchors, flags and buoys
were now mixed in what seemed
a hopeless confusion. The boat
was filling with sharks and saw
| fishes, and the stencil from these
still-writhing creatures and from
the blood was quite overpowering.
The heat grew intolerable. No
dainty job, this!
"Oh, King! AIT" the crew
would shout, as they hoisted a
huge monster. king, lib for
eber! Come on, come down!
Again. As the shark swung in
board: Lets gop And down it
would flop and slither by the run,
half ton or more of struggling
viciousness. The fishermen's mus
Giles stood out like those on Greek
| statues. Ebony statues they
seemed, bronzes, sweating and
magnificent. Some artist should
go out shark-fishing and win
| fame.
| In the third net we took a dead
leopard. | am glad this was after
lunch. We ate in a glare of sun
and smoked a restful pipe, be-
| fore going to work again. The
dead leopard. however, would
have wrecked my appetite if we'd
caught him before lunch. High"
was what you might call it. Rot
ten, and somewhat fragmentary.
This choice bit was none the less
kept. Its leather, / suppose, was
not impaired by the putrefaction
of the flesh.
| Another shark-boat now came
bearing down on US, reported II
| sharks aboard, and bore away for
Key West. Afternoon was pass
| ing, and the time was at hand for
US also to be under way. But our
motor refuses to ''mote." We lay
in q cooking glare of descending
sun for an hour or more, while the
crew tinkered at it, and . glad
sound the old engine made. for
nae. when at last she began once
more to kick. Without about 20
sharks and sawfiSh aboard, some
of them Is feet long or more, we
Il finally laid q course for home.
"Dey'n eat anything, dees we're