FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



27 



near Boston Lightship, this last being the smallest 

 that is on record to date (p. 26), and one about 14 

 feet long, weighing 1,050 pounds dressed, which 

 sold for 10 cents a pound, was taken in a trap at 

 North Truro on November 9, 1952. 



Carrying the record back to earlier years, a 

 15-foot shark, taken at Monomoy Point at the 

 elbow of Cape Cod in the autumn of 1928, appears 

 to have been a maneater, and one of about 16 

 feet, taken in a trap at East Brewster, October 16, 

 1923, and identified by Dr. Samuel Garman, 

 certainly was, while one of 7 feet 2 inches, taken 

 in Massachusetts Bay, about 1910, was the basis 

 of Garman's (1913, pi. 5, fig. 5) beautiful illus- 

 tration. Earlier still, a 13-footer, taken at 

 Provincetown, Cape Cod, in June 1848, was 

 described by Storer as a new species, atwoodi, 

 while two small ones were mentioned by him as 

 taken by Massachusetts fishermen between 1820 

 and 1850. And Capt. Atwood reported seeing 

 four, caught in mackerel nets at Provincetown 

 many years ago. 47 



Proceeding northward, we find scattered records 

 from the vicinity of Portland, Maine, most re- 

 cently, a 13-footer caught in a gill net off Casco 

 Bay in November 1931; one from Eastport, 

 Maine, many years ago; a very large one (esti- 

 mated as about 26 feet long) taken in a wier at 

 Campobello Island, November 23, 1932 * 8 it was 

 suggested locally that it may have been the same 

 specimen that had attacked a fishing boat off 

 Digby, Nova Scotia, the preceding July (p. 27); 

 one from Deer Island, New Brunswick, taken in a 

 herring weir, August 24, 1949 ; 49 and one from 

 Digby, on the Nova Scotian shore of the Bay of 

 Fundy, July 2, 1932. And there are several re- 

 liable records for St. Margaret Bay on the outer 

 coast of Nova Scotia, perhaps also for Halifax. 



The most northerly positive record for it on the 

 Atlantic coast of North America is for St. Pierre 

 Bank, south of Newfoundland, where one attacked 

 a fisherman in a dory many years ago, leaving 

 in the sides of the boat pieces of its teeth, from 

 which Dr. Garman was able to identify it. 50 



Westward and southward from the elbow of 

 Cape Cod, we find nine or ten definite records for 

 Nantucket and for the vicinity of Woods Hole 



« Putnam. Bull. Essex Inst., vol. 6, 1874, p. 72. 

 •' Piers, Proc. Nova Scotian Inst. Set., vol. 18, 1934, p. 198. 

 * A female 12 feet , 8 Inches long, weighing 1 ,299 pounds, reported by Scatter- 

 good, Trefetben, and Coffin, Copela, 1961, p. 298. 

 » Putnam, Bull. Essex Inst., Salem, vol. 6, 1874, p. 72. 



(never more than two in any one year), with one 

 of five feet (second smallest on record) netted at 

 Sakonnet, Rhode Island, May 30, 1939. Maneat- 

 ers are also reported occasionally near New York, 

 notably one of about seven feet, taken in Sandy 

 Hook Bay, July 1916, to which we recur below 

 (p. 27). 



Belation to man. — So few man-eaters visit our 

 Gulf that they would deserve only the briefest 

 mention were this not the only shark that is ever 

 likely to attack human beings there. Strong and 

 active, equipped as it is with a most terribly 

 effective set of cutting teeth, it has borne an un- 

 savory reputation as a man-eater from the earliest 

 times, and it is probable that the 7-foot specimen 

 listed earlier from South Amboy, Sandy Hook 

 Bay, was the cause of the shark fatalities along 

 the New Jersey beach in July 1916 (p. 16). A 

 fatal attack on a swimmer at Mattapoisett, on 

 Buzzards Bay, on July 25, 1936, may also have 

 been by a man-eater, though in this case the 

 shark was driven away without being identified. 



This is also perhaps the only shark against which 

 unprovoked attacks on small boats are proved 

 by identification of their teeth, embedded in the 

 wood. One such instance, from the Newfound- 

 land Banks, was reported by Putnam " many 

 years ago (p. 27). A recent local case is of a very 

 large one that attacked a fishing boat in the Bay 

 of Fundy off Digby Gut, Nova Scotia, July 2, 

 1932 and left in her keel or lower planking several 

 of its teeth, by which it was identified. 62 Storer 63 

 wrote of a case where one (apparently the 13-foot 

 specimen that he had described earlier as atwoodi) 

 turned furiously on a boat, but was lanced to death 

 and brought into Provincetown. And a 15-foot 

 shark, probably this species to judge from the il- 

 lustration of it that was published, 64 that was 

 killed off Monomoy Point by two fishermen in 

 November 1928, overturned their dory before it 

 was subdued. And one of about 15 feet (similarly 

 identified by teeth left in the planking) attacked 

 a boat, from which it had been harpooned, in St. 

 Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia, on June 27, 1920." 

 Hence, so long as maneaters wander within 



»' Proc. Essei Inst. Salem, vol. 6, 18/4. p. 72; teeth Identified by Dr. S. 

 Garman. 



" Reported by Piers, Proc. Nova Scotia Inst. Scl., vol. 18, 1934, p. 198. 



« Fishes of Mass., 1867, p. 248. 



*• Reported In Wltman and Lee Co.'s Market Letter for Nov. 8, 1928; called 

 to our attention by Dr. Lewis Radcllfle of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. 



*» For details of this occurrence, see Piers, Proc. Nova Scoila Inst. Scl., vol. 

 18, 1934, pp. 196-198. 



