86 Commercial Shark Fishing in the Caribbean Area 



Figure 27 



Genus Eulamia, Requiem Sharks. 



Figure 27. Eulamia leucas, Bull Shark, Cub Shark. 



Description: E. leucas differs from all other Atlantic members 

 of its family, except for Negaprion brevirostris (Figure 41), and 

 Eulamia longimanus (Figure 24) in its extremely short and very 

 broadly rounded snout, combined with the fact that there is no 

 ridge along its back. The fact that its second dorsal is much 

 smaller than its first dorsal is, however, enough to mark it off 

 at a glance from the first of these. A relatively shorter and 

 broader pectoral, the shape of the first dorsal fin (compare Figure 

 27 with Figure 24), and the fact that the rear tip of its anal fin 

 is far from the point of origin of the lower lobe of the caudal, 

 separate it from the adults of the E. longimanus that may lack the 

 mid-dorsal ridge. 



Color: Grey above, varying from pale to dark apparently ac- 

 cording to the color of the bottom over which it is living; white 

 below. Adults do not have any conspicuous fin markings. 



Size: Matures at a length of about 7 feet. This species grows 

 to 10 feet or a little more. Reported weights are 250 to 375 

 pounds at 8 to S l / 2 feet and 400 pounds at 10 feet. 



Habits: A heavy, slow swimming species, most common inshore in 

 shoal water ; often caught around docks and at the entrances to 

 passages between islands and keys; also often running up rivers 

 even into fresh water, and represented by a land-locked form (E. 

 nicaraguensis) in Lake Nicaragua. It feeds indiscriminately on 

 all sorts of fish, large and small, including sting rays, the spines of 

 which are sometimes found embedded in its jaws. It attacks 

 smaller sharks and sometimes porpoises which it finds entangled in 

 nets. It is a notorious scavenger and it bites readily on any 

 large bait of fish or meat. Seemingly its young are born in late 

 winter and early spring. 



Range: Western Atlantic, from southern Brazil to North Caro- 

 lina, and occasionally straying as far north as New York. It is 

 not yet known whether it occurs in the eastern Atlantic. Present 

 indications are that its center of abundance covers the West 

 Tndian-Caribbean region generally as far north as northern Florida 

 and no doubt the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico as well. 

 Throughout this area it is, in fact, one of the more numerous 

 members of its genus, if not the most numerous. In the warmer 

 parts of its range it is evident throughout the year. 



