According to anthropologist John Messenger, there are over 100 factual errors in the film. Among the more notable is the shark-hunting sequence, which dominates the latter half of the story. Kimball says this practice had disappeared so long ago that the islanders didn't know how to make or use the harpoons and had to be taught the skills of the hunt. Messenger, who visited Islands between 1958 and 1968, goes further, claiming that the islanders never had engaged in shark hunting then, or at any time in the past. Flaherty brought fishermen from Scotland to teach the locals how it is done. “Flaherty...created new customs, such as shark fishing, and seriously distorted numerous indigenous ones in order to make the "Man of Aran" fit his preconceptions and titillate the camera.” Flaherty himself admits the shark fishing sequence was needed for the box-office.