82 Commercial Shark Fishing in the Caribbean Area 



Figure 25 



Genus Eulamia, Requiem Sharks. 



Figure 25. Eulamia obscurus, Dusky Shark. 



Description: Among ridge-backed members of this genus (of 

 which it is one), obscurus most resembles milbcrti (Figure 26). 

 In fact, it has often been confused with it. It is easily separable 

 from it, however, by the fact that the vertical height of its first 

 dorsal fin is considerably less than the distance from the eye to 

 the first gill opening, and also that it originates farther toward 

 the rear. It differs from the other ridge-back species falciformis 

 and floridanus in the shapes of its second dorsal and anal fins as 

 well as of its teeth ; from longimanus in the facts that the tip of 

 its first dorsal fin is not broadly rounded and that the tip of its 

 anal does not fall near the point of origin of the lower lobe of the 

 caudal. 



Color: Bluish or brownish or leaden gray above; greyish or 

 pure white below, except that the lower surfaces of the pelvics 

 are grayish and sooty toward their tips. 



Size: Born at a length of about 34 to 40 inches, it grows com- 

 monly to a length of 10 to 12 feet and is reputed to reach 14 feet 

 though perhaps not on any positive grounds. 



Habits: About all that is known of its habits is that it is taken 

 both close inshore as well as farther out at sea and that it is a fish 

 eater. In Floridian waters, groupers and various other reef fishes, 

 as well as portions of other sharks, have been found in its stomach. 

 Present indications are that it produces young throughout its 

 geographic range and over a long season. 



Range: Both sides of the Atlantic, in tropical and warm tem- 

 perate waters. From southern Massachusetts to southern Brazil 

 off the American coast. Obscurus has often been confused with 

 other species, but it is certainly common throughout the year off 

 the east coast of Florida where large ones are often taken on set 

 lines. It is probable, too, that it occurs generally throughout the 

 West Indies and Caribbean, for it has been reported from the 

 Bahamas, from Trinidad, from British Guiana, as well as from 

 Brazil. To the northward, young ones often range as far as south- 

 ern New England in summer. 



