26 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Size. — This is one of the largest of sharks. A 

 gulf of Maine specimen about 3 feet long is the 

 smallest, apart from embryos, that has been seen; 

 one of about 5 feet the next smallest. So far as 

 known it does not mature sexually until it has 

 grown to a length of 12 to 14 feet. Among larger 

 ones, from one place or another, the exact measure- 

 ments for which have been reported, four have 

 been between 14 and 16 feet long, two between 16 

 and 18 feet, and three between 19 and 21 feet. 

 The largest on record was 36 K feet long; u the next 

 largest about 30 feet, but perhaps not measured 

 exactly. 



Maneaters of a given length may vary widely 

 in weight, because of variations in their condition. 

 Thus one specimen 8 feet 2 inches long weighed 

 only 342 pounds, but another of 8 feet 3 inches, 

 weighed 600 pounds. Five, weighing between 910 

 and 1,000 pounds ranged from 9 feet 8 inches in 

 length to 12 feet 6 inches. Three, of 13 to 13% 

 feet, weighed 1,291 to 1,344 pounds, but another, 

 from South Africa of 13 feet 3 inches scaled 2,176 

 pounds, doubtless a very fat fish. A 15-foot 

 2-inch specimen weighed 1,720 pounds; and one of 

 21 feet, the largest that has been weighed so far, 

 7,100 pounds, its liver 1,005 pounds. 46 



Habits.- — So few maneaters are seen that little is 

 known of their way of life, apart from their vorac- 

 ity. Most of the records of them have been of 

 specimens taken at or near the surface, and such 

 specimens as visit our Gulf sometimes come very 

 close inshore. Thus two specimens were seined 

 close in, off Swampscott, at the northern entrance 

 to Boston Harbor in 1939; one was harpooned in 

 1937 about 2 miles off Nantasket Beach, one of 

 the most popular bathing resorts near Boston; 

 another was harpooned about one-half mile off 

 Cohasset, Mass., where the water is not over 20 

 feet deep; one in 10 feet of water in Provincetown 

 Harbor, many years ago. Some have even been 

 taken in fish traps close to the beach on Cape Cod 

 and near Woods Hole; and in 1916 one was taken 

 in the shallow water of Sandy Hook Bay, N. Y. 

 On the other hand, the largest one that has been 

 weighed yet was caught on a set line off the north 

 coast of Cuba, at a depth of about 700 fathoms. 



Nothing is known of its breeding habits, beyond 



"This Australian specimen, the jaws of which are in the British Museum, 

 is the basis for repeated statements that the maneater grows to 40 feet. 



*' For further details, see Blgelow and Schroeder, Fishes Western North 

 Atlantic. Pt. 1, 1948, pp. 137-138. 



the bare facts that it is ovoviviparous like others 

 of the mackerel shark tribe. 



The maneater is one of the most voracious of all 

 the fish tribe, feeding indifferently on large prey 

 and on small. Other sharks, 4 to 7 feet long and 

 practically intact, have been found repeatedly in 

 maneaters' stomachs; and a young sea lion of 100 

 pounds in one on the coast of California, while 

 seals, sturgeons, and tuna have been found in 

 maneaters no longer than 8 to 9 feet. In southern 

 seas they are described as feeding regularly on sea 

 turtles. But they also devour smaller fishes of 

 whatever kinds are available, including small 

 sharks and chimaeroids, also squids. When they 

 come in on the fishing banks, they are known to 

 take fish that they find hooked on long lines as 

 porbeagles do (p. 22). Thus the mouth of one of 

 9 feet 8 inches, taken near Cohasset, Mass., and 

 examined by us, carried several hooks with the 

 snoods still attached, while its stomach contained 

 a spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) that evidently 

 had been torn off a hook. And a large Florida 

 maneater, caught on a set line, contained 2 brown 

 sharks (Carcharhinus milberti), 6 to 7 feet long, that 

 had evidently been torn from hooks on the same 

 set line on which the maneater was hooked. The 

 maneater, like the Tiger shark, is not above feed- 

 ing on slaughterhouse waste or other garbage. 



General range. — This is an oceanic shark, 

 widespread in the tropical and warm temperate 

 belts of all oceans, including the Mediterranean. 

 In the western side of the Atlantic it has been 

 recorded as far north as St. Pierre Bank south 

 of Newfoundland, and as far south as Brazil." 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The maneater 

 is usually looked on as a warm water shark, 

 doubtless correctly so. None the less, it has been 

 reliably reported from the southwestern part of 

 the Gulf of Maine more often than it has from any 

 other coastal sector of comparable length on the 

 Atlantic coast of North America. At least 10, 

 for example, were actually captured or were 

 harpooned and lost in Massachusetts Bay alone 

 during the period 1935 to 1948. We ourselves 

 examined three of these, one that was netted at 

 Swampscott; a female of 9 feet 8 inches weighing 

 980 pounds that was harpooned within half a mile 

 of the land off Cohassett, in August 1940; one of 

 about 3 feet, that was harpooned in July 1948 



*• For details and references, see Blgelow and Schroeder, Fishes Western 

 North Atlantic. Pt. 1, 1948, pp. 140-141. 



