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Has “Jaws” moved to Pentecost?

Has “Jaws” moved out of Holly wood and into the South Pacific?

Julian Putley, of the yacht Starry Night, now at Honiara, isn’t sure, but thinks there’s a chance the sea monster might have called through.

Julian writes to PIM: “One normally associates vicious shark attacks on humans with sensational Hollywood movies, but recently, while cruising through Vanuatu, I heard from a reliable source, a true story that chilled me to the bone.

“I was anchored on the west side of Pentecost Island at Hohio Bay (in order to see the spectacular land diving held every autumn) and, as usual when anchoring in a new bay I dived in to check the anchor, swimming in a large circle around the vessel to ensure no coral heads were present.

“When I regained the yacht I noticed a large crowd on the beach staring and pointing at me, but I paid no real attention. Later, the same day the headmaster of the primary school there told me that two weeks previously, about April 25, a 13 year old boy had been completely devoured just yards from where my boat was anchored.

The boy was standing in the water, up to his chest, when a large shark attacked him.

Observers said the shark made three or four quick strikes and before assistance could be rendered there was nothing but a red stain in the water. No remains were found.

They told me it was the second such attack in five years.

“The teacher said that sharks are prevalent in the rainy season, com ing close in to shore to forage amongst the debris from swollen rivers. At this time the sea is very murky and swimming or even wad ing in it is most inadvisable,” concluded Mr Putley.

Even experts differ on what makes sharks attack humans. Most attacks, at least in the Pacific, appear to occur in shallow water rather than out at sea or on the face of a major reef. In Fiji, for example, all recent attacks have been made on men or women fishing while standing hip-deep in the sea, often with a string of dead, and frequently bleeding, fish floating around their waists. The curiosity, in fact, is that given the great number of people

fishing in this time-honored fashion, shark attacks are not more preva lent; indeed, they are quite rare, or so it would seem from the available reports. There are many sharks in the Pacific. In half a decade of scuba diving we have seen many sharks, some closer than others, but shark attacks upon divers are almost totally unknown, not that many divers (aside from Ben Cropp and the Taylors), hang about while

“munchies” are in the vicinity. In Fiji, where the local branch of the British Sub Aqua Club has about 100 active divers, sharks are seen constantly. Very rarely, a diver is “bumped” by a shark, it being of a territorially-possessive ilk, but in many years of sport diving not one attack has occurred. No diver, however experienced, takes sharks and their tempers for granted. Yet many people with long experience of the sea consider them to be creatures much-maligned by the media and the human race. One must presume, of course, that no one leaping to the defence of sharks in general has met them head-on, so to speak. Editor.