ABSTRACT
Postwar retrospection in consort with discouraging results of numerous additional carefully controlled tests cast such doubt on the efficacy of Shark Chaser that it was ultimately phased out of the military procurement schedule. With wartime pressures and priorities relaxed, shark research was put in proper perspective, and competed for available limited funding with studies on numerous other hazards of biological origin that threaten the well-being of naval personnel. The Navy created a special division, the Human Ecology Branch, within the Office of Naval Research to study personnel operations and survival under extreme environmental stresses, e.g., arctic, desert, and tropic environments. Essentially, shark research, atom bombs, television, and modern rocketry are all siblings, born of the urgencies of World War II. The United States Navy's concern with sharks remains very practical and basic: keep them from interfering with naval operations and from harassing naval personnel.
