From The Key West Citizen, January 31, 1923 County Judge Hugh Gunn and Deputy Sheriff Herman Albury returned to the city yesterday afternoon from Big Pine Key, bringing with them the right hand of a human being taken from the stomach of a shark, which was caught in a net one and one-half miles off shore of Bahia Honda bridge, Saturday last. The right hand and wrist were taken from the stomach of the large sea monster by the men employed in the shark fishing industry at Big Pine Key. Only the hand, however, was preserved by the manager. The men also report the finding of several pieces of blue flannel cloth in the stomach of the fish. Being unable to determine to which sex the hand belongs, it has been turned over to local physicians for examination by the county judge. Ernest Shultz, who has made a life study of. the shark, and who is employed at the Big Pine Key camp, informed Judge Gunn that the shark from which the hand was taken was a brown shark, and not a member of the man-eating family. This shark was 17 feet long. "I have also found that it takes a shark from 24 to 48 hours to digest substances of a light nature, but heavy substances they do not digest, as they expunge them after carrying them for several days," Mr. Shultz also, informed Judged Gunn. In view of the fact that the contents of the shark's stomach had not been there long, and that there has been no person in this vicinity reported as missing during the time of the retention of the hand in the stomach of the shark, it is evident that this particular denizen of the deep must have traveled some distance from the time of making the meal and being killed.
|
