The Sharkfighters

The Sharkfighters is a 1956 American adventure film about U.S. Navy scientists working to invent a shark repellent to protect military personnel down at sea. Directed by Jerry Hopper, it starred Victor Mature, James Olson, and Claude Akins. The fictional storyline is based on the invention of "Shark Chaser," an historical shark repellent developed by researchers during World War II.

In August 1943, Lt. Commander Ben Staves (Mature), recovering from the sinking of his destroyer in battle and the loss of part of his surviving crew to shark attack, is flown to Project Shark Chaser, a tiny and isolated Naval Research Laboratory post on the Isle of Pines in Cuba. Its rich environment for sharks and indigenous English-speaking population of Caymanero fishermen makes it an ideal testing ground for the development of an effective shark repellent. The small research team has been led during its first ten months of investigation by Lt. Commander Leonard "Len" Evans (Coolidge), an ichthyologist formerly with the Scripps Institution, assisted by a chemist, Ensign "Dunk" Duncan (Olson), and a cameraman, Chief Petty Officer "Gordy" Gordon (Akins). Ben assures Evans that he is there to help him, not take over the project. When Evans tells him they'll get started "first thing in the morning," Ben counters with "Why not now?" and the team heads out into the bay on a small fishing boat crewed by a local Caymanero and his teenage son Carlos (Campos) to test copper acetate as a repellent. Evans advises that the project has already tested over 200 methods, including poisons, repulsive odors, color clouds, and ultrasonics, none of which has a lasting effect in driving away sharks. The test is initially successful until the acetate cloud dissipates after a few minutes.