Giant Fish 185 



attached to each hook to prevent it foul- 

 ing its fellows. A fifty-gallon oil drum 

 does duty as a float and each hook is 

 baited with eighty pounds of fish. Such 

 tackle has been known to land a 2,000 Ib. 

 tiger shark, a 2,000 Ib. shovel-nose shark, 

 a two-ton sawfish and a bunch of sand 

 sharks averaging 800 Ibs. each. The 

 commercial shark fisher uses the harpoon. 

 One company in Australia lands a quarter 

 of a million sharks annually, converting 

 the catch into such a variety of com- 

 modities as oil, leather, fertilisers, medi- 

 cines, wax, soups and soaps. 



The ray or skate is virtually a shark 

 " rolled flat/' Its side fins are certainly 

 produced into immense " wings/' but 

 its general make up is identical with that 

 of a shark. Rays of ten feet across 

 the "wings" are not unknown in the 

 North, while in tropical waters monsters 

 averaging forty-five feet in width abound 

 in huge schools. Specimens have in fact 



