chapter 12 



The Sharks— 

 Part Two 



The largest family of sharks is the Carcha- 

 rhinidae, whose 60-odd species, classed 

 in about 15 genera, encompass the familiar sharks found throughout the 

 world— and many that are feared. The sharks of this family are sometimes 

 known as Requiem sharks because of their reputation for causing death. 

 The funereal name still persists in the French word for shark, requin. 



The physiological oddities found in many of the sharks already men- 

 tioned—the flat bodies, the unusual arrangement of fins— are not found in 

 these species, for they are all "typical sharks." 



The genus with the most species is Eulamia {Carcharhinusy. The 

 sharks of this genus begin our roll of the Requiems. 



Family Carcharhinidae—KEQViEM Sharks 



Brown Shark 



[Eulamia {Car char hinus) milberti Miiller and Henle, 1841] 



(Also Known as Sandbar Shark, New York Ground Shark) 



As the summer's heat drives throngs of bathers to the cooling waters 



of the Atlantic Ocean shore from New England to Florida, schools of 



Brown sharks head for the same waters. European relatives of the Brown 



shark also enter the warm lagoons of the Mediterranean— and even prowl 



the canals of Venice, startling gondoliers and their blissful passengers. 



One August day in 1916, Edwin Thorne, a sports fisherman who 

 hunted sharks as a hobby, cruised the waters of Great South Bay, Long 

 Island, between Lindenhurst and Great River. He reported seeing at 

 least 200 Brown sharks on that one day. As many as 14 of these 6- to 

 8-foot sharks have been harpooned in Great South Bay in a single day. 

 (It is called the Sandbar shark because of its habit of appearing as it 

 crosses a sandbar, then disappearing again on the other side.) 



1 Eulamia and Carcharhinus are both used by reputable classifiers to designate the 

 genera of certain species of the Carcharhinidae. Eulamia seems to be generally ac- 

 cepted, currently. 



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