SHARKS IN AUCKLAND.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 11, 10 December 1926, Page 6

SHARKS IN AUCKLAND.

evidence of cannibalism

FISHERMEN’S STRANGE CATCH

Bv Telegraph.—Special to Standard.] AUCKLAND, Dec. 9. “Dog eat dog” may be only a wellworn phrase, but cannibalism among sharks is well authenticated, another instance occurring at Manukau Heads on Tuesday. ~ , . , , , Fishermen on Monday night, having caught a kahawai off the wharf consiened it again to the deep attached to a shark line. On returning to the wharf next morning the fishermen noticed a violent agitation at the end of the line and attempted to pull it m, but the line proved to be fast and the dinghy was requisitioned to pull out over the spot. The first object to be disclosed was a 301 b anchor around which the line was fouled. Then on the free end of the line, and the cause of its frantic gyrations, was found a large shark. When taken and despatched the shark was found to have swallowed the top half of a smaller shark which had been bitten in two. This smaller shark contained the original kahawai bait and the hook. To complete “the house that Jack built,” the larger shark, which was 9ft 3in long and oft in girth, was found to be a female and to contain 19 young. Thus a kahawai had proved the downfall of 21 sharks, old and young.