Giant Fish of Florida 



Like most ground - hugging species, the jewfish, once 

 brought to the top, is inflated and helpless. His one hope is in 

 the razor-edges of the coral, and well he knows how to turn 

 these, where available, to account. If he is caught, it is 

 because he has inadvertently wandered far from his natural 

 defences, and cannot risk a sudden haul from above by an 

 attempt to regain them. A ponderous perch-like fish, he is 

 known in many southern and sub-tropical seas, and is a 

 favourite object of sport, like his ally, the grouper, all round 

 the Australian coasts. 



It is just possible, of course, to reckon too securely on this 

 helplessness of jewfish when hauled to the surface, for an 

 occasional captive may put forth exceptional efforts to regain 

 its liberty. Thus, I recollect a case in which one of 300 Ib. 

 was lost by a lady through too great reliance on this usual 

 collapse, for the fish was made fast by the line close along- 

 side the boat, and was being towed ashore, when it made a 

 sudden dash for freedom and went down like a stone. 



Like most of the other great fish of those waters, the jew- 

 fish is troubled with suckers, and in the photograph facing this 

 page may be seen a sucker of about i Ib. adhering to the side 

 of a 4OO-lb. jewfish. So close do these uninvited guests cling 

 by means of their sucking apparatus on the head, that only a 

 quick leap (which the jewfish, by the way, cannot manage) and 

 a sudden twist in the air dislodges them. I have seen sharks 

 leap out of water and throw them off in showers. The only 



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