34 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



THE SAND SHARKS. FAMILY CARCHARIIDjE 



In the sand sharks the two dorsal fins are spineless and nearly equal in size, the 

 upper lobe of the tail is much larger than the lower, there are no keels on the caudal 

 peduncle, and the teeth are very slender and pointed. 



10. Sand shark {Carcharias taurus Rafinesque) 



Shovelnose; Dogfish shark; Blue dog; Little mackerel shark; Ground shark 



Jordan and Evermann (Carcharias littoralis Mitchill), 1S96-1900, p. 46. 

 Garman, 1913, p. 25. 



Description. — The large size of the second dorsal and anal fins (which are about 

 equal to the first dorsal instead of much smaller) is of itself enough to distinguish 

 this species from all other Gulf of Maine sharks. The first dorsal fin being located 

 but little in front of the ventrals, the trunk seems crowded with fins of equal size — 

 a useful field mark for this species. We may also point out that the pectoral fins are 

 not much larger than the other fins — triangular rather than sickle shaped; that the 

 upper lobe of the tail is nearly one-third as long as head and body together and 

 notched near the tip, with the lower lobe about one-fifth as long as the upper; and 



Fig. 11.— Sand shark ( Carcharias taurus) 



that the head is flat, the nose short and blunt at the tip. The teeth of the sand shark 

 (they are alike in both jaws) are likewise diagnostic, being long, narrow, and pointed, 

 with a spur at either side near the base, and smooth-edged. 



Size. — Adult sand sharks are usually about 4 to 5 feet long, often a foot or 

 more longer, and rarely taken up to 8 or 9 feet. 25 They have been reported up to 

 12 feet long, but this is so much longer than the general run as to raise the question 

 whether these monsters were actually sand sharks and not some other species. 



Color. — The ground color is gray, darker above, lighter below, indistinctly 

 spotted with darker brown, and the edges of the fins are sometimes edged with black. 



General range. — Coastal waters of the United States from Maine to North 

 Carolina. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The sand shark is the commonest of all its 

 tribe (except the smooth and spiny dogfishes) at the westerly entrance to the Gulf 

 of Maine. It is very plentiful at Woods Hole from June to November and is to be 

 found everywhere in that region in shoal waters, even coming up to the wharves. 

 At Nantucket, too, it is so abundant that shark fishing, with the sand shark as the 

 chief objective, is a popular sport, and although we find it far less abundant once we 



" Sherwood (Copeia, Nov. 15, 1921, No. 100, p. 77) records one otS feet 10 inches, caught at Clinton, Conn. 



