Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 301, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1915 — New York Has Lots of Sharks—in Its Waters [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

New York Has Lots of Sharks —in Its Waters

NEW YORK. —In the past summer, sharks have been unusually abundant in the vicinity of New York harbor, and among them have been wanderers from other parts of the ocean which seldom appear here. Except, how-

ever, the sand shark, with narrow, white, catlike teeth, which ordinarily grows only to a length of four feet, the only large shark to be found in large numbers near New York is the Milberts Ground shark. Every year many females of this species, six or seven feet long, enter the bays of Long Island to give birth to their young in the untroubled inshore waters. Sometimes one max Bee th® back fin of one of these sharks following the edge of some shoal where she

is searching for flat flsh and other small fishes on which these sharks feed. In June a 14-foot “basking” or “bone shark” was taken at Westhampton beach, and Doctor Hussakof, the curator of the department of ichthyology of the American Museum of Natural History, made a special trip to examine the rare monster. The report of his observations gives a good idea of this largest of fishes. The basking shark is a sluggish fish, reaching a length of nearly forty feet. Its large mo'uth is not used in preying on other fishes, but in gulping barrels of sea water from which the small animals are strained by the highly developed gill rakers, a habit resembling that of the whalebone whales; Indeed, the gill rakers of the basking shark resemble whalebone, hence the name “bone shark,” by which it is sometimes known. Again, in September a large tiger shark was captured off Islip, and its head was later sent to the museum by Capt John C. Doxsee. The tiger shark attains a length of twenty or thirty feet, and is a wanderer from southern waters, where it Is greatly feared by the natives, who care very little for ordinary ground sharks. The teeth of this species are unlike those of apy other 6f the sharks —broad, with oblique points, and a wavy, cutting edge,