FOREST A N D STREAM 
955 
Whale Shark (Rhincodon Typus) Florida. 
THIS IS NOT AN ANGLER’S DREAM 
BUT IT DOES SHOW TO WHAT SIZE THE WHALE SHARK 
GROWS-SPECIMENS HAVE BEEN TAKEN 50 FEET LONG 
our own experts have recommended and under 
these circumstances it is difficult to imagine how 
we could make any reasonable defense. They 
might easily say to us, “All your own reputable 
and competent experts opposed the enactment of 
this law in 1912, your own investigators appoint¬ 
ed in 1914 specially to study the workings of the 
law have recommended its repeal, and the figures 
of the census taken by your own officials in 1915 
show that the previous recommendations were 
well grounded.” What can we say to this and 
how can we expect testimony from our own ex¬ 
perts in support of our course when all of them 
are on record against it? What may result from 
international negotiations no man knoweth, but 
the simplest analysis of the situation seems to in¬ 
dicate that we would be obliged to yield and at 
the expense of some national humiliation which 
could be avoided if the law were repealed before 
the protests come in. 
One feature of the seal care perhaps needs 
further explanation. Although it is evident that 
the killing of surplus males will have none but 
a beneficent effect on the growth of the herd, 
still killing is killing and bloodshed is not popu¬ 
lar among a large class of conservationists. 
Therefore, it may be asked, why kill at all? Why 
not let the seals alone for good and all? To 
this it must be replied that this a practical world 
and that even if our own sentiment became pow¬ 
erful enough to force such a measure, we could 
not hope for the co-operation of other nations 
which may or may not be more hard-hearted 
than we are. The fact is that the seals are worth 
too much money and permanent cessation of kill¬ 
ing would be about as probable as prohibition of 
catching fish from the sea. Their protection is 
best obtained by the goose-and-golden-egg argu¬ 
ment and if it were not for the force of this 
they might be totally destroyed at any time. 
Therefore, paradoxical though it seem, the best 
policy to insure the preservation of the seals is 
one which involves the taking of life. Con¬ 
versely, a prohibition of killing like that in the 
law of 1912 is the very thing most likely to lead 
to the ultimate annihilation of the seals since it 
discourages international agreement and threat¬ 
ens a return to pelagic sealing. 
It may be said by those wishing to delay ac¬ 
tion that the law prohibits commercial sealing 
for only two years longer and that, therefore, 
it is now scarcely worth while to u rge its repeal. 
The loss to be suffered in 1916 and 1917 may not 
be more than a million dollars and of course the 
United States Treasury could get along without 
that sum. But why suffer such a loss unneces¬ 
sarily and why suffer it at the added expense of 
the ill will of Great Britain and Japan? More¬ 
over, why not recognize that the law must be 
repealed eventually, for after the total suspen¬ 
sion of sealing it provides for excessive reserves 
of males for the ten years following, or until 
1927. These reserves are -scarcely more reason¬ 
able than the total suspension and in themselves 
promise an annual loss of more than a hundred 
thousand dollars or over a million dollars for 
the ten years. 
After all that can be said against this law of 
1912 there is practically nothing to be said in its 
favor. For the welfare of the seals, for the 
profit of the national treasury, and for fair deal¬ 
ing with foreign nations, therefore, the law 
should be repealed. 
GAME FISHING RECORD BROKEN IN 
HAWAII. 
James W. Jump, of Los Angeles, the holder 
of the world’s record for yellow-fin tuna at Cat¬ 
alina, has broken the world’s record for an after¬ 
noon’s catch of game fish with regulation rod 
and reel off Molokini Island, Maui, Territory 
of Hawaii, with two yellow-fin tuna, 70 and 62 
pounds, two ono (a cross between the giant 
mackerels and the swordfish), one weighing 61 
pounds and measuring 6 foot in length and the 
other, 5 foot, weighing 42 pounds; one barra¬ 
cuda, 3 foot 2 inches in length, and a number 
of smaller game fish, including the oceanic 
bonito, albacore, etc.—a total afternoon’s catch 
of over three hundred pounds of game fish. 
T HERE have been tales of big fish from Flor¬ 
ida during the past season, dealing with ele¬ 
phant eared sunfish, and other strange deni¬ 
zens of the sea, including the whale shark. Proba¬ 
bly not many people know much about the whale 
shark. He is the largest of all fishes, bar none, and 
is said to reach the length of sixty feet. Definitely 
specimens have been known to reach the length 
of fifty feet. Think of that, you anglers who 
are content to use a six inch measuring rule! 
Photos by Jos. Beck, Long Key 
If You Have Been Backsliding on the Jonah 
Story Just Study This Picture. 
Through the courtesy of Dr. C. H. Townsend, 
director of the New York Aquarium, Forest and 
Stream is able to present a picture of a whale 
shark as he appears au natural. The description 
is also by the Doctor, as given in one of the offi¬ 
cial bulletins of the New York Zoological Society. 
Our photographs represent a shark, which as 
mounted, is forty-five feet long. Its mouth, as 
one picture shows, is large enough to accommo¬ 
date a man presumably of the size of Jonah. We 
have no information as to the size of its throat, 
which may or may not be so large, as the ani¬ 
mal, like its relative the great basking shark, 
feeds chiefly upon minute surface life and is 
quite harmless to man. Among existing crea¬ 
tures it comes next to the greater whales in size. 
It was captured on June 1, 1912, near Knight’s 
Key, Florida, by Captain Charles Thompson, who 
presented the picture of the mounted specimen 
when he called at the Aquarium. It was exhib¬ 
ited for a short time in New York and was later 
taken to Atlantic City. 
This is the second recorded instance of the 
appearance of this shark in Florida waters, al¬ 
though it has long been known from such widely 
separated regions as the Indian Ocean, Bay of 
Panama, Gulf of California and the coast of 
Japan. It was first described by Dr. Andrew 
Smith in 1829, from a specimen taken at the 
Cape of Good Hope. 
Like the great basking shark its teeth are small 
and quite useless for offensive purposes; in this 
species they are very numerous but extremely 
minute. It is quite different in appearance from 
most other sharks, having a blunt head with the 
mouth placed well forward instead of under¬ 
neath the head as is usually the case. The eyes 
are small and are placed low, near the corner 
of the mouth. The gill slits are unusually large. 
This species is covered with round white spots, 
most numerous on the head. 
An interesting account of the whale shark by 
B. A. Bean, will be found in Smithsonian Mis¬ 
cellaneous Collections, Vol. 48, 1905. 
