I04 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



more than eight feet long, at Cape Lookout, North Carolina, contained many eggs and 

 embryos more than nine inches long in July; and that females with unripe eggs have been 

 reported at Woods Hole in the same month in different years. Since no embryos have been 

 found in large females in Florida, and since immatures three to five feet have been reported 

 so far only from the section north from Delaware Bay (where these constitute the majority 

 of the local stock, p. 103) this is probably the chief center for the production of young, 

 but information is still lacking as to the seasonal occurrence of gravid females there, or of 

 newborn young. 



Proverbially voracious, the Sand Shark feeds chiefly on smaller fishes, for the 

 capture of which its slender raptorial teeth are admirably adapted. Large specimens have 

 been taken with as much as 100 pounds of fish in their stomachs, and by eyewitness accounts, 

 schools of them may surround other fish or even those imprisoned in fishermen's nets. On 

 the east coast of North America the recorded diet, depending on the geographical local- 

 ity, includes alewives {Pomolobus), black drum (Pogonias), bluefish {Pomatomus), 

 bonito (Sarda), butterfish (Poronotus), cunner {T autogolabrus) , eels (Anguilla), flat- 

 fishes, menhaden (Brevooriia), mullet (Mugil), scup {Stenotomus), sea bass {Ceniro- 

 fristis), sea robin (Prionotus), small sharks (species?), shark sucker (Echeneis), silver 

 hake (Merluccius), spadefish {Chaetodipterus), spot (Leiostomus), tautog (Tautoga) 

 and the weakfishes, spotted (Cynoscion nebulosus) and gray (C. regalis). No doubt a 

 complete list for any given locality would include practically all the local species that were 

 not too large. Squid have been found in their stomachs at Woods Hole, likewise crabs and 

 lobsters, although the latter are perhaps only exceptionally eaten, for they were not found 

 among the stomach contents of many more which were recently examined at Woods Hole 

 on different occasions. There is no reason to suppose that this species ever attacks large prey. 



Relation to Man. Although plentiful, the Sand Shark is of little commercial impor- 

 tance at present. A few are included in the catch of the Florida shark-fishery; occasional 

 specimens are sold at a low price in fish markets. There were local fisheries for it for 

 leather in Nantucket Sound, in the first quarter of the present century, but these were 

 short-lived, reportedly because of exhaustion of the stock. However, it is of some interest 

 to sport anglers, considerable numbers being caught by them yearly, both as objects of 

 special pursuit or incidentally while surf-casting for other fish. But its resistance when 

 hooked is so much less vigorous for its size than that of the more active pelagic sharks, such 

 as the Mako or White Sharks (pp. 128, 139), that few would rate it as in the game class. 



There is no record of attack by a Sand Shark on human beings in North American 

 waters, although bathers often come close to them, our own experience bearing this out. 

 Its relative (or relatives) in East Indian waters bears a sinister reputation, however. 



Range. Mediterranean, tropical West Africa, Canaries and the Cape Verdes in the 

 eastern Atlantic; South Africa; western Atlantic from the Gulf of Maine to Florida and 

 southern Brazil; represented in Argentine waters and in the Indo-Pacific by close allies 

 (see Species, p. 99). 



