THE MAN EATING SHARK

Recent agitation for a Harvard policy on the man-eating shark situation is meeting with speedy and determined action from those who make it their business to reply to burning questions of the day. But already the University Museum of Comparative Zoology has scooped all other expeditions by stepping into the breach with a fish collecting trip to Cuba this winter which was announced yesterday. Although failing to realize the true significance of the shark question, the Museum has nevertheless made a great stride in the right direction. Concentrating on small fry is their only mistake; it is the mob leaders, the tops of the racket, who must be eradicated.

While an opportunity for warm water fishing should not be overlooked by any Museum, it should not be taken for granted that man-eating sharks can thus lightly be ignored in favor of lesser finny denizens, or molluscs and foraminifera. The Museum has evidently seen the light, but not enough of it. Man-eaters are inclined to sneer at trawls and nets. Furthermore, they are likely to burst out in new viciousness at being over-long neglected. Various persons will then have to pay tribute with their arms and legs for shark spite.

It is not too late yet; the Museum can still buy up some harpoons from the Eskimos and some one-pounders from the Japanese, and really go after this thing with zest. Let the man-eating pirates be scourged from the high seas before they can commit any more depredations on the pedestrian commerce of our waterways. The Museum, as a unit representing Harvard, should not go fishing for peaceful fish while there are still so many killers at large.