16 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



only adult milbej'ti and the comparatively few 

 sexually immature mUherti of adult size occur- 

 ring with the adults. 



On the west coast of Florida, shark-fishing 

 vessels caught no E. m.nbertl at all from May 

 through November and reported their largest 

 catches from January through March in each of 

 several years for which data are available. 



At Key West, Fla., high catch rates were ob- 

 tained for milberti from deepwater sets made in 

 the winter and early spring but catches at other 

 seasons were poor. 



High catch rates of adult E. milberti were ob- 

 tained by shark-fishing vessels off the Carolinas 

 in September, and from 1946 to 1949 one or two 

 of the more able shark-fishing vessels followed 

 the fisliing for adult milberti southward, arriving 

 off Salerno in January or February. 



Scouting by shai"k-fishing vessels showed that 

 some adult 7nilberti were present in each month 

 of the year along the Atlantic coast between the 

 latitudes of Charleston, South Carolina, and 

 Miami, Florida. Although E. milberti was the 

 principal species sought in this area, other species 

 contributed variously to the value of the total 

 catch. Table 2 shows the comparative availa- 

 bility of large sharks to the kinds of fishing gear 

 employed in the Salerno area in the late spring. 



Distribution in Bahamas and West Indies 



E. m,ilberti is common only on the western side 

 of the Gulf Stream. On the eastern side of the 

 sti'eam, it is replaced by E. falciformis as the 

 common inshore Eulamia. The wandering of 

 milberti into the Antillean area may be quite 

 limited. There are no records of milberti east- 

 ward through the West Indies nor from the 

 southern shores of Cuba. A shark fishing opera- 

 tion on the eastern part of the Bahama Bank in 

 the period from 1947 to 1949 did not take mil- 

 berti. 



E. falciformis was reported by Evermann and 

 Marsh (1902) from Puerto Rico; by Beebe and 

 Tee Van (1928) from Port-au-Prince Bay, Haiti ; 

 by Nichols (1929) from Puerto Rico; and by 

 Backus (19.57) from open sea situations east of 

 the Gulf Stream. None of these authors noted 

 the presence of E. milberti. 



Frank Mather III has told^-me in correspond- 

 ence.of the capture of E. fwhiformis and E. flori- 



d^nu from the vicinity of St. Croix and St. Thomas 

 in the Virgin Islands. Mather's fisliing operations 

 covered the depth range in which E. milberti 

 would be expected if its geographical range ex- 

 fends through the West Indies and if the absence 

 of milberti follows the usual pattern in the West 

 Indies. \ 



Table 2. — Sharks taken by commercial fishing vessels in the 

 Salerno-Fort Pierce area {Bethel Shoal to Jupiter Light) 

 and landed at Salerno, Fla., in May and June 1945-46 



|1 to 3 vessels; only sharks with hide length of 55 in. or more included; fishing 

 depths from 18 to 40 fathoms] 



Number of sharks 



Species 



Eulamia milberti (Miiller and Henle), sandbar shark., 



Spht/rna sp.,' hammerheads 



Eulamia obscura (LeSueur), dusky shark 



Eulamia Horidana (Bigelow, Schroeder, and Springer), 



silky shark .,, 



Galeocerdo curier (LeSueur), tiger shark 



Carctiarhinus leucas (Miiller and Henle). bull shark.. . 



Negaprion breviToatris (Poey), lemon shark 



Carcharhinus sp.,^ blacktips 



Qinglymostoma cirratum (Gmelin), nurse shark.. 



Carcharodon carctiarins (Linnaeus), great white shark. 



Isurus oiyrinchus Raflnesque, mako 



Unidentified 



• 3 species; station records do not distinguish kind. 

 3 2 species; station records do not distinguish kind. 



That the Gulf Stream is not itself a barrier to 

 E. milberti is apparent from the occasional cap- 

 tures along the Bahama Banks and off the north- 

 ern coast of Cuba. It is possible that large num- 

 bers of migratory sharks may wander away from 

 normal migratory routes at times when unusual 

 conditions prevail. Certainly a few Tnilberti 



JA 



.-t/^ 



cross the stream. 



From May 18, 1948, to July 8, 1948, I under- 

 took a program of experimental shark fishing 

 along the western edge of the Bahama Bank from 

 Riding Rock northward. Fishing operations 

 were carried out from a base at the Lerner Ma- 

 rine Laboratory of the American Museum of 

 Natural History at Bimini, using a fishing vessel 

 and gear provided by the Shark Industries Divi- 

 sion of the Borden Co. Fishing was carried on 

 chiefly by bottom setlines at depths from 10 to 

 200 fathoms, but some floating lines were used to 

 assure collection of as wide a variety of sharks as 

 possible. Sets included some made at various 

 levels along the extremely pr.ecipitous slope of the 

 bank, which drops off abruptly from about 20 

 fathoms down to the floor of the Gulf Stream 

 channel where depths are more than 150 fathoms. 



