12 GIANT FISHES 



PORBEAGLES AND MAKO SHARKS. 

 (Genus Lamna.) Figs. II, 12. 



The snout is pointed and overhangs the large, crescentic 

 mouth, which is armed with large, slender, awl-shaped teeth, 

 with smooth edges (Fig. 59) ; sometimes the teeth have a pair 

 of small points at the base. There are 3 or 4 rows of teeth in 

 use at a time, and these point either directly down the throat 

 or towards the roof of the mouth. The external gill-clefts are 

 wide. The coloration is dark bluish-grey above, shading to 

 white beneath. 



Grow to a length of 12 feet or more. 



The Common Porbeagle (L. cornubica) is found in the 

 Mediterranean, North Atlantic and North Pacific ; the 

 American Porbeagle (L punctata), sometimes referred to locally 

 as " Blue Shark ", is found on the eastern coasts of the United 

 States ; the Sharp-nosed Mackerel Shark (L. tigris) ranges 

 from Cape Cod to the West Indies ; the Blue Pointer or 

 Mako Shark (L. glauca) inhabits the seas of Australia and 

 New Zealand ; and the Mediterranean Mackerel Shark (L. oxy- 

 rhynchus) is found in the Mediterranean and the adjacent 

 parts of the Atlantic. 



The Common Porbeagle is not uncommon round the coasts 

 of the British Isles. It is also known as the Beaumaris Shirk, 

 as Pennant, in his ' British Zoology ', published in 1776, 

 described a specimen from that district of North Wales. The 

 fishermen sometimes refer to it as the " Bottle-nosed Shark ". 



All the Porbeagles and their allies are fierce, voracious 

 sharks, and feed mainly upon fishes; herring, cod, whiting, 

 hake, mackerel and dogfish being the favourite food ; squids 

 and cuttlefishes are also included in the diet of some species. 

 On the British coasts the Porbeagle is frequently captured In 

 mackerel and salmon nets, or on lines that have been laid to 

 catch bottom-living food-fishes, and when they entangle 

 themselves in drift or gill-nets, and roll themselves up into an 

 inextricable mass of twine, they can be a perfect nuisance to 

 the fisherman. It is recorded that a shark taken in the cod 

 gill-nets in the Firth of Forth at the beginning of the present 

 century had in its stomach no less than eleven hooks with 



