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FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Figure 6. — Sharp-nosed mackerel shark, or Mako (Isurus oxyrinchus), about 64^2 inches long, Maryland. Below, teeth 

 in front of mouth of a large specimen, Cape Cod. From Bigelow and Schroeder. Drawings by E. N. Fischer. 



States are perhaps 5 to 8 feet long. Males of 

 about 6 feet are sexually mature (as indicated by 

 the claspers). Kecorded weights at different 

 lengths are about 135 pounds at 6 feet, 230 pounds 

 at 7 feet 8 inches; and about 300 pounds at 8 feet. 

 The heaviest Atlantic mako caught on rod and reel 

 of which we have found record was one of 786 

 pounds taken off Bimini, Bahamas, by Ernest 

 Hemingway in 1936; the largest Pacific mako one 

 of 798 pounds, taken by E. White-Wickham off 

 New Zealand. 39 



Habits. — This is one of the most active and 

 swift swimming of the sharks. In seas where it 

 is more common than it is m our Gulf, it is often 

 seen swimming at the surface, and it is famous 

 for its habit of leaping clear of the water, not 

 only when hooked, but under natural conditions. 

 Seemingly it preys chiefly on schools of smaller 

 fishes of the mackerel and herring tribes. But it 

 also attacks larger fishes. A 730-pound mako, for 

 example, that was harpooned near Bimini in the 

 Bahamas, contained a 120-pound swordfish 

 (Xiphias gladius) almost entire, while one weighing 

 about 800 pounds, harpooned off Montauk, Long 

 Island, was seen attacking a swordfish, and was 



39 A South African shark of 2,176 pounds, landed on rod and reel, and re- 

 ported as a mako, Is proved by the photograph of Its teeth (London lUus. 

 News, July 14, 1928, p. 53) to have been a maneater (Carcharodon) . 



found when landed to contain a large amount of 

 its flesh. 40 



Young embryos of the mako, like those of the 

 porbeagle (p. 22), have greatly dilated stomachs, 

 being nourished on the unfertilized eggs that he 

 near them in the oviducts, and they are very 

 large at birth, relative to the size of the mother. 



General range. — This is an oceanic shark, of the 

 tropical and warm-temperate belts of the Atlantic 

 north and south, including the Mediterranean in 

 the east and the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico 

 in the west. It is represented in the corresponding 

 thermal belts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans by 

 a close ally, the Pacific mako Isurus glaucus. 



Occurrence in the 6ulf of Maine. — The center of 

 abundance for the mako lies in warmer seas to 

 the southward of our Gulf. Considerable num- 

 bers journey northward, however, in summer 

 along the continental shelf, as far as to the offing 

 of southern New England, and a few are caughl 

 off Woods Hole. One of the earliest accounts of it 

 in American waters was based partly on one from 

 Cape Cod. During the past few summers we 

 have heard repeatedly of makos seen jumping, or 

 occasionally hooked near the northern end of 



«• See Farrington (Field and Stream, vol. 47, Feb. 1943) for these Instances 

 of the mako attacking swordfish, and for other Interesting notes on this 

 shark. 



