BATTLES WITH GIANT FISH

Evening Star, Issue 18809, 6 December 1924, Page 18

BATTLES WITH GIANT FISH

TARPON AND HUGE SKATE. Most animals have a very definite limit of growth. Thus there is very little variation in the size of an adult, sparrow or frog, or bluebottle, or garden spider. In a minority of cases, however, growth continues at a diminishing rate as long as life lasts and the supply of food is abundant. Most fishes belong (writes ITo-fe-sor J. A. Thomson) to this group ot unlimited growers; and we catch old, vet not senescent, haddocks ns big as ot din.it \ codfish, salmon 601 b in weight, and skate over 6ft lung, not counting the tail. IN THE PAH RIG The best fish stories since■ Bnl.cn - and most, of his fishes were zoologically whales -—are those told hy Mr I - A. Miudioll- | Hedges in his ‘Battles With Giant Irish.' His lulling ground was in th > Ginlibc.in sea and adjacent parts of the Pacin', and he gives a picturesque account of much good sport. The hook is strikingly ilhistiaicd with over sixty excellent photographs, by Lady Richmond Brown, who shared in the dangers and successes of the expedition. There were sumo very interesting scientific spoils. To begin with, (here was fishing for tarpon, a giant relative of the herring, with scales broader Ilian the palm of onr hand; and who can fail to enjoy the, story of one of these fishes that, threw itself 6ft. into lie air, towed the boat along, and would have turned the .scales at, over 2501 b, but. for the j Hilling circumstance that it was inn caught? But they got a red schnapper 58in long. Alin in girth, 102.11 b in weight, with teeth like an alligator’s, but nearly 2in in length. And what shall one say oj a shark 2071 b in weight, caught with rod and line? DAGGERS AND SAWS. Some huge skates arc brought into British fishing ports, but they are caught with the trawl, which is a very diffcicnt, mailer; and Mr Mitchell-Hcdges's thrill was intensified when the skate was a sling- [ ray with a tail like a carriage whip, bearing near its end a serrated dagger that ! gives one of the ugliest of wounds, apt, [indeed, to be fatal. They got a female stingray weighing 5001 b, and it was noticed | Unit the dagger is double in this sox. Tho young are born vivipaionsly and fully formed except that they have no dagger, which would bo distinctly in the way inside | the mother! Here it may be noticed also that young sawfishes have the saw developed before birth, but NT i- Mitchell-Hedges 1 calls attention to the very-interesting fact, i paralleled in other cases, Unit the weapon I is covered bv a sheath until the young i warriors are "born. This is a rather striking ante-natal adaptation ! 1 Rome of the leopard stingrays are “ awe- , inspiring brutes.’’ After hours of fighting with rod and lino tho fishers landed one that was 7ft bin across, 6ft 9in in length of body, with 9ft 6in of tail, and a weight of 410ib. We have firmly resolved never j to tell another “ big fish story.” PENALTIES OF GREATNESS. I Apart from pnrasites—from microbes upwards—there is very rarely any hint of .constitutional disease or pathological | growth (like cancer) in wild Nature. If ■ such diseases emerge, they arc nipped in the bud. Nature is all for health; what is out of tune is eliminated. It must be noted, however, that Mr Mitchell Hedges found among his big fishes, c.g., a shark i of 1,4601 b (not caught, with rod and line), | considerable evidence of abnormal growths. Tho question rises whether these were in ; any way a tax on size, the penalty of growing too huge. Tt must also be remembered that sharks frequently swallow recalcitrant booty, which are worse than Jonahs, for they lacerate the viscera. Thus a swallowed globe fish, with its parrotbeak jaws, may bite through the wall of the shark’s stomach, and then through the wall of the body, thus regaining freedom., It is quite possible, that such internal injuries might lend to abnormal growths. SIGNS OF WARFARE. More intelligible were the scars and halfhealed wounds which The big fishes often showed externally, grim evidence of fierce battles. It is not only with molesting enemies that (hey fight, but with one another. Thus tho observers had the good fortune tn -witness a, battle-royal between about a, dozen male sand sharks. It was the breeding season, end they had all set their fancy on the same beautiful female. “Rushing. tearing, and rending one another, ripping out chunks of flesh, thrashing the water with their tails, tho spray and spume flying in'every direction ” —the battle lasted for a good half-hour. “ For at least a hundred yards around the water was rod with blood.” Mr MitchellHedges believes that the fury of the bull sharks was mutually destructive. “If there was ever a victor, lie must have been so terribly maimed and mutilated as —I should imagine—to be no longer attractive to the lady of his choke. ’’ There are some, strange scenes in the drama, of life. It is impossible with such fell fishing to avoid all trace of the “big bag” bounce, to which every naturalist must he hostile. “Six thousand four hundred and ninety pounds caught on hook and line in a, day,” “sawfish weighing tons.” But the fishers worked hard for their sport., and Mr Michell-Hedgcs seems to have dissected every kind of fish he caught. His notes on structure and habits make ns wish for more.