Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-01-21
SHARKS FOR FOOD.
Man-EAters Cut Up Into Slices and Sold In
San Francisco.


Man-EAters Cut Up Into Slices and Sold In
San FranoIsco.
Market Inspectors Wray and Aurich
the other morning found young sharks
exposed for sale as ''tenderloin of sole"
in the Clay Street fish market and con-
hscated them. Among the sharks were
four of the man-eating sort. Seven hun.
dred pounds were destroyed. The shark
is viVaporous, bearing from FIVE young
to ten times that number. At about
this season each year many of the
smaller and harmless varieties come
into San Francisco bay, whether to fos-
ter the young or to feast upon bay fish
Is an open question. They are not often
taken by fishermen, being worthless
unless very young, when they are
sometimes sold to dealers for trife,
and by the latter skinned and palmed
of for young sturgeon, tenderloin Of
sole or fish Of other sorts.
The better class of Italian fishermen
emphatically decry the practice, al
though in Italy young shark is consid-
cred a delicacy and brings a greater
price than any other fish. When taken
here it is usually in gill nets The
sharks, in swimming about for prey,
run foul Of the nets and at once begin
thrashing and rolling about, soon being
hopelessly involved, when they are
beaten to death by the indignant fisher
men. Another way in which they are
sometimes taken Is by "set lines"
which are long lines of stout cord, to
which are attached hundreds of short
dependent lines, each ending in baited
hook.
Rock cod or other small fish take the
bait Then the rock cod is itself swal-
lowed by green cod or other large fish.
The shark then engages and swallows
both fish and hook. Finding his free
dom interfered with, he begins an effort
to break away and in his movements
fAstens many other hooks in his skin, at
last being immovably fixed. The fish
erman then rows alongside, kills the
marauder and cuts the hooks out from
his tough skin. Seven years ago one
was captured in a seine near Sausalito,
but usually when shark enters q seine
he tears 1t to pieces very soon. Most Of
those taken in the bay are found about
AlcAtraz island, which seems to be good
feeding grounds.
Five kinds of sharks are found locally,
two Of them being dangerous to man.
They are the man-eater, the leopard
shark, the dog fish, the spiny shark and
the shovelnose or hammerhead. The
hammerhead and man-eater, after
reaching large size, will attack bathers
at times. Neither is to be feared unless
six or seven feet long and weighing
from three hundred pounds upward.
Antoine Barcoli, q fisherman of twenty
five years experience about San Fran
cisco, states that he has seen but one
true man-eater since coming here. His
statement is fully supported by 6.
Mussa, Francisco Paolini, G. Michel,
Jim Michel and other notables in the
colony of Italian and Greek fishermen.
The fishermen hold the sharks found
about the bay in adherence as they do
crabs, claiming that both act as scaven-
gers, housing along the bottom and de-
Vouring any thing and every thing that
comes their way. At San Diego and
from thence southwark man-eating
sharks are in plenty. The age of any
shark may be easily ascertained by ex-
aiming the teeth, so say the fisherman,
an additional row being developed for
each year of age.-San Francisco Ex-
Aminer.