302 Shark and Company 



A duel between the razor-toothed Mako and the toothless swordfish 

 would appear to be one the shark was sure to win. But the swordfish's 

 sword is a weapon that can be wielded with incredible power. There 

 are many documented cases of swordfishes' swords having been thrust 

 through a foot or more of solid oak in the hulls of ships. 



Captain Young saw the evidence of such a mortal duel: 



It was while we were shark-fishing around Warimos Island near Djibouti on 

 the Red Sea. One morning a native came to me to report that a dead shark was 

 on the beach. I ordered the men to drag it up to the station and skin it, since 

 shark skins were what we were after. 



When they had the skin partly off, a man came running to bring me to see 

 what they had found— 18 inches of a Broad-Billed Swordfish sword in the vital 

 organs of the shark. 



As I reconstructed it, there had been a swift, deadly fight. The swordfish 

 had rammed the shark, and, unable to withdraw the sword from the shark's 

 tough hide, had broken it off in the struggle and fled. 



The sword had entered the right side of the shark in the space behind the 

 last gill-slit and just in front of the base of the right pectoral fin. It had gone in 

 at this angle because the swordfish had attacked the right side almost head-on. 

 The sword entered to the very hilt and obliquely penetrated the vitals of the 

 shark. 



The Mako is a shark of many names, both scientific and common. 

 The Mako of the Atlantic, /. oxyrinchus, is also known as the Sharp- 

 Nosed Mackerel shark. The Mako of the Indo-Pacific and South Africa 

 (/. Glaucus) is called, in various places, the Bonito, Blue Pointer, Blue 

 Porpoise, and Snapper, In AustraHa and New Zealand, /. glaucus even 

 has another scientific name— I suropis or Isurus mako Whitley, 1929. 

 The fact is that both oxyrinchus and glaucus are very close relatives. 

 And wherever or however they are known, they are regarded as superb 

 game fish. Taking no sides in the name-calling, the International Game 

 Fish Association recognizes both as the Mako shark. 



Besides being indomitable fighting fish, both species are suspected 

 of attacking men. In Australia, the Mako has also been accused of several 

 unprovoked attacks on small boats. In one such incident, four men in 

 a rowboat off the Bellami Reef, New South Wales, Australia, were fishing 

 when a school of sharks suddenly charged toward the boat. The men 

 rowed frantically, but one of the sharks smashed into the boat, ripping 

 a hole in it and hurling the four men into the water. One man struck 

 out for shore. He got about 20 yards before he was pulled under by a 

 shark. Two of the others later disappeared and were never found. The 

 fourth man lived. 



Like some other ovoviviparous sharks, Makos probably begin their 

 voracity in the womb. The embryos hatch from eggs while still in the 



