28 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



our limits more often than had been realized pre- 

 viously, the possibility is always open of attacks 

 on bathers along the Massachusetts shores of 

 the Gulf. 



Despite its ferocity, muscular strength and size, 

 the man-eater does not put up so spectacular a re- 

 sistance when hooked as does a mako, neither 

 running so fast nor having the habit of jumping. 

 Neither does it put up as strong a fight, pound 



for pound, as a tuna ordinarily does, or any of the 

 swordfish tribe. Thus a 1,329-pound maneater 

 was landed on rod and reel by an Australian angler 

 in 53 minutes. One of 2,176 pounds, caught 

 from the shore in South Africa, is the largest fish 

 ever landed on rod and reel that has come to our 

 notice. 66 



» London Illus. News, July 14, 1928, p. 63; photograph recorded as a mako 

 but shown by its teeth to have been a maneater. 



BASKING SHARKS. FAMILY CETORHINIDAE 



Basking shark Cetorhinus maximus (Gunnerus) 

 1765 



Bone shark 



Bigelow and Schroeder, 1948, p. 147. 



The basking shark resembles the mackerel 

 sharks in the lunate shape of its caudal fin, with 

 lower lobe nearly as long as upper; also in the 

 presence of a noticeable lunate furrow above and 

 one below on the root of the tail, and in the 

 wide lateral expansion of the latter, forming a pro- 

 nounced "fore and aft" keel on either side; also 

 in the facts that the second dorsal fin and the anal 

 fin are much smaller than the first dorsal, that its 

 fifth gill opening is situated in front of the origin 

 of the pectoral fin; in the position of the mouth on 

 the under side of the head ; and in the wide separa- 

 tion of the nostrils from the mouth. But the teeth 



of the basking shark are minute and very numer- 

 ous (large and few in number in the mackerel 

 sharks); its gill openings are so large that they 

 extend right around the neck, with those of the 

 first pair almost meeting below on the throat ; and 

 the inner margin of each gill arch bears a great 

 number of horny, bristle-like rakers, directed 

 inward-forward, that correspond to the rakers of 

 various bony fishes in their position and in their 

 function (see p. 30). It was the fancied resem- 

 blance of these rakers to the whalebone of the 

 whalebone whales that suggested the vernacular 

 name "bone shark" to the whalemen of olden 

 times. 



Corresponding to its feeding habits, the mouth 

 of the basking shark is very large and widely dis- 

 tensible at the corners. The snout is short, 

 conical, with rounded tip on large specimens. 

 But it is much longer, relatively, on small ones, 



Figure 8. — Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus), 26J4-foot female, Marthas Vineyard. A, side view of head of 12-foot 

 Long Island specimen; B, a group of the teeth of same, about 1.2 times natural size. From Bigelow and Schroeder. 

 Drawings by E. N. Fischer. 



