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Shark and Company 



A 5-ton, 32-foot Whale shark {Rhincodon typus), caught by UN fishing instructor 

 G. S. lUugason and his crew in the Arabian Sea, is inspected by residents of Mangalore, 

 India. It was towed ashore after an epic, 7-hour struggle. 



UN Food and Agriculture Organization Photo 



The shark pulled the boat for about 20 minutes. Then the line 

 snapped, and the shark swam away, carrying the hook and 90 feet of 

 line. "Then the fish came to the surface again," Illugason continued. "I 

 was able to get a nylon line through the eye of the hook. The shark 

 turned to the open sea, towing us with it." 



After 3 hours, the giant began to slow down; by then, most of the 

 fight was out of it. After winding 16 more lines and a steel wire around 

 the upper lobe of the tail fin, the fishermen towed the shark home to 

 Mangalore. Their catch weighed more than the fish many fishermen 

 could catch in a lifetime: 5 tons. 



Because of their enormous size, Whale sharks are almost impossible 

 to weigh accurately. The Knight's Key specimen weighed an estimated 

 26,594 pounds.^ Even this incredible weight is not the greatest a Whale 

 shark can attain. Dr. E. W. Gudger, who made a lifelong study of Whale 

 sharks, believed that 32 feet was about the average length of the Whale 

 shark, and that there was reason to believe that some reached a length of 

 70 to 75 feet. The weight of a 75-footer could be, on the basis of 

 smaller Whale sharks' known weight, as much as 20 tons. 



5 The weight was estimated by this formula, according to Dr. Gudger: Length in 

 inches multiplied by square of the girth in inches and divided by 800 gives the weight 

 in pounds. The shark was 38 feet (456 inches) long and had a 216-inch girth. The 

 weight: 26,594 pounds, give or take a couple of ounces. 



