Are you throwing the spear from land? or are you in the water with the shark. If you are in the water with the shark you have no chance. Sharks are among the fastest fish in the sea. Often they attack by approaching from directly below their target or at least out of their sight at lightning speed, bite, then release and wait for their prey to bleed to death. Shark skin is as tough as boot leather and as toothy as a wood rasp. I've seen a show where they were dissecting a great white shark. The shark's skin was almost 8 inches thick.  I'm sure we all played kung fu in the pool when we were kids, and I'm sure some of you guys still do . Remeber how ineffective it was punching your brother under water? I don't think that one could thrust a spear while submerged with sufficient force to do much, particularily to a shark. If you enter a sharks world, well, he has the home field advantage and will win most if  not every time.


If I wanted to kill a shark, using primitive technology, I'd go a couple of routes depending on the size of the fish. One would be to build a fish trap at low tides using wood or bamboo stakes. It would be a sort of corral for the shark, I'd bate it with a pig or something, then the shark would be trapped when the tide goes out. A nice long spear from a boat might work, but then again, if the shark is larger than you are, fat chance at that.  A bow and arrow might work as well. I've seen articles on bow fishing where they were pulling in 100lbs stingrays and some smaller sharks. Stealing an idea from jaws, You could attach floats to the line on your arrow, hopefully  they would wear the shark out enough to keep it still while you stab it with a spear.

One thing to remember though, if you ever are in the water with a shark, the best defense is to punch it in the nose, and if that doesn't work, you then poke it in the eye with your stump.

I hate to say it, but while they are big scary fish, sharks are still pretty reasonable creatures, and don't much like food that fights back. One of Johnny's ineffective kung-fu punches wil often turn around a shark that probably wasn't *really* considering having a go at you anyway.

Anyone read Thor Heyerdahl? In "Kon-Tiki" they amused themselves by trailing their arms in the water over the side of the raft. They would grab an approaching shark by the tail and (taking advantage of shark's well known easy-gripping skin) proceed to haul the shark tail first onto the raft. I think the explanation they gave was that the sharks didn't fight back at all until their heads broke the surface, after which it was too late. Apparently mad sharks thrashing around on deck are a little bit concerning, but now they are in our realm, and the odds are considerably reversed...

Don't think that these were just little guys either. The photos were crazy (one with maybe a dozen sharks lying on deck). This was before people were sensible about resource exhaustion...

I'd imagine a standard primitive toggle or socket-head harpoon, a few fathoms of line and a float or two would work fine. If you have the technology to take whales, sharks should be ok too.

Matthias

Hehe, I can imagine them thinking... "Yuck, I can't believe I took a whole bite of that. That critter tastes terrible, and it's bony leg is still stuck in my throat."

While the vast majority of shark attacks are because they've mistaken a person for a seal or they are simply curious, those little love bites are terribly fatal.

Just a side note, I don't dislike sharks in the least. I think they are amazing creatures that serve an essential purpose in the oceans. People just need to excersice proper precautions when around them, just like with any other wild animal. I always get a kick watching those "When Animals Attack" shows. There is always some idiot who wants a photo of himself frolicking with the cute little bear cubs while their mother looks on.


http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0700world/tm_objectid=14417690&method=fu... this was just a few days ago...

I've never understood how officials know which animal to kill after it attacks someone.  Do they do around and ask the other animals?  I think it's wrong to do something like this.  The shark/bear/whatever is just doing what its programmed to do.  I think if you're out hunting polar bear(one of the few animals that will turn around and hunt you), and you're, then tough luck you died fair and square.  I'm not against hunting animals for food, but if I die cause I made a mistake then so be it.  Sorry for getting off topic.

I'd like to contribute a couple of points.  One being that sharks are amazingly tough.  Also, fishing with explosives works because the shockwave interacts with the fish's swim bladder and ruptures it.  Shark are to primitive to have swim bladders and hence would be relatively immune to shockwaves.

I agree with the point that entirely too many sharks are being uselessly killed, so unless you have some real good reason to, like it ate your mother..... and you liked her, I'd tend to leave them alone, and allow them to leave me alone.

If they don't have a swim bladder like a normal fish how do they control bounancy?