FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



25 



Cape Cod, and in the summer of 1941 one about 

 six feet long was landed on rod and reel in the 

 southern side of Massachusetts Bay near Plym- 

 outh. 41 Thus stray individuals may be expected 

 to visit the southern part of the Gulf in most 

 summers, though we have never met it there 

 ourselves. It has even been reported as far north 

 as Seguin Island, Maine, but without convincing 

 evidence that the shark in question was not a 

 porbeagle. 42 



Importance. — The chief importance of the At- 

 lantic mako, as of its Indo-Pacific relative, is as a 

 game fish, because of its fast runs when hooked 

 and of its habit of leaping. But it is not plentiful 

 enough anywhere in the Gulf of Maine to be 

 worth fishing for there especially. 



Maneater Carcharodon carcharias (Linnaeus) 1758 

 White shark 



Bigelow and Schroeder, 1948, p. 134. 

 Garman, 1913, PI. 5, figs. 5-9. 



Description. — The maneater is of the general 

 "mackerel shark" appearance, with firm lunate 

 tail, the upper lobe only a little longer than the 

 lower ; and with triangular first dorsal of moderate 

 size originating over the armpits of the pectorals, 

 which are sickle shaped, and roughly twice as 

 long as they are broad. The second dorsal and 

 anal fins are very small, the former a little in 

 advance of the latter; and the root of the tail 



*' Informal ion from Dr. W. J. Mixter. 



41 Various early reports of It in the northern part of the Gulf seem to have 

 referred, actually, to the porbeagle. 



bears a single well-marked keel on either side. 

 The snout is conical, moderately pointed. 



Unfortunately, there is no obvious field mark 

 to distinguish a small maneater from a large 

 porbeagle or from a large mako when seen swim- 

 ming at any distance. Once captured, however, 

 no confusion could arise, for instead of the slim 

 catlike teeth of the porbeagle and of the mako, we 

 find the maneater one of the best armed of all 

 sharks ; its teeth large and triangular, and similar 

 in shape in the two jaws, except broadest in the 

 upper, with nearly straight cutting edges and 

 strongly serrated margins. As a precaution, any 

 large active shark, upwards of 10 or 12 feet long, 

 with the tad not long, out of ordinary proportions, 

 should be looked upon with suspicion, for it might 

 prove to be a maneater. If it were sluggish, 

 resting with the dorsal fin high out of water, it 

 would be no doubt a harmless basking shark 

 (p. 28). 



Color. — Maneaters up to 12 to 15 feet long are 

 slaty brown or leaden gray above, sometimes 

 almost black, shading more or less abruptly on the 

 sides to dirty white below. There is a black spot 

 in the armpit of each pectoral fin, and the lower 

 surfaces of the pectorals are black toward their 

 tips, usually with some black spots adjacent. The 

 pelvics are white below, but olive along their 

 anterior edges. Larger specimens (we have seen 

 none) have been described as dun colored above 

 or very pale leaden, and they may lack the black 

 spot at the armpit of the pectoral fin. 43 



1 1nformation from Stewart Springer, from large Florida specimens. 



Figure 7. — Maneater (Carcharodon carcharias), Massachusetts, about 7 feet long. A, first three upper and B, first 

 three lower teeth, from center of jaw, from a specimen about 8% feet long, Woods Hole, about 0.6 times natural 

 size. From Bigelow and Schroeder. Drawings by E. N. Fischer. 

 210941—53 3 



