332 Shark and Company 



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Lemon shark (Negaprion brevirostris) . 



Courtesy, American Museum of Natural History 



Yellowish brown, dark brown, or bluish gray above, its sides are 

 yellowish or greenish olive, shading to white, pale yellow, or grayish 

 yellow below. It has a bluntly rounded snout. The Lemon resembles 

 the Cub shark, but it can be distinguished from the Cub by its coloring 

 and the fact that its dorsal fins are practically the same size. The Cub's 

 second dorsal fin is less than one half as large as its first dorsal. 



Great Blue Shark 

 (Prionace glaiica Linnaeus, 1758) 

 (Also Known as Blue Whaler, Blue Shark) 

 The suspicion has been accumulating for centuries that this long, 

 slim, blue shark should be indicted as a man-killer, but there is no posi- 

 tive record of a Great Blue's being caught in the act. Many a seaman, 

 from the age of sail until the present, would attest to the Great Blue's 

 man-eating habits, however. Certainly the Great Blue has the necessary 

 equipment— sharp, saw-edged teeth, and the size— a length of 15 to 20 

 feet, at least. It has also frequently shown its rapacity before the eyes of 

 men. 



Here is an eyewitness description of Great Blue sharks swarming 

 around captured whales during a whaling expedition: 



Whenever a whale was killed, the sharks would uncannily begin to congre- 

 gate, like hyenas round a dead lion, assembling so rapidly that the sea would 

 be fairly alive with them by the time the whale had been towed alongside the 

 ship. The hungry troop would then file silently and slowly along the whale's 

 length, fondly rubbing tail fins against his black bulk, and doubtless anticipating 

 the feast of the "cutting in." During the execution of this process, when the 

 water for an acre around the ship was stained a ghastly yellow from outpouring 

 blood, the scrambling sharks would make the sea a living mass as each fish tried 

 to bury its teeth into the exposed surfaces of dark red muscle. Now and then 

 a shark would flounder right on top of the whale, and cling there until a 

 descending blubber spade had put an end to its ambitions . . . 



This description did not come from an excited landlubber or a whaler 

 spinning a yarn. The authors of this 1916 report were two highly re- 



