Shark-Eating Men 111 



Danish Landings, Value, and Exports of Sharks and Dogfish, 1961 * 



1 Lamna cornubica. 



2 Acanthias vulgaris. 



3 Individual countries not available in 1961, but in 1960 Belgium-Luxembourg, 

 Switzerland, and Sweden imported almost 4 tons from Denmark. 



* Quantities of piked dogfish exported were so small they were lumped in an "Other" 

 category and unavailable as to amount or value. 



* Herring sharks are taken in the North Sea and Skagerrak mostly by vessels fish- 

 ing with long lines. Dogfish are taken incidentally in trawls and Danish seines. There is a 

 fishery for Mackerel sharks in the Northwest Atlantic off the New England and Canadian 

 coasts by a Faroese company utilizing three vessels. The sharks are frozen on board 

 and sold in Italy under a current contract amounting to about $580,000. (Report of 

 April 5, 1962, from the Regional Fisheries Attache, United States Embassy, Copen- 

 hagen.) 



From Commercial Fisheries Review, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Vol. 24, No. 6, 

 June 1962. 



ate them, but also brought them into their arts and writings. Authors 

 frequently discuss the eating of shark in the midst of learned essays. 

 Epicharmus remarks that skate goes well with cheese. Lynceus of Rhodes 

 twits the proud Athenians by writing that none of their fishes can com- 

 pare in taste with the Rhodian fish supreme, the Thresher shark. The 

 Roman satirist Petronius makes a comment on how men determine their 

 values, noting: 



What must be sought, and dearly bought, 



Scari and Swans, toe prize; 



While skate and goose, in vulgar use, 



Men utterly despise. 



