SWALLOWED BY SHARKS

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 18 November 1929, Page 7

SWALLOWED BY SHARKS

JONAH EMULATED BV FISH. Among many rare and startlingly coloured fish recently received at tne Zoological Society's Aquarium from the coast of Madeira, are a pair of loin long porcupine fish, states the “Daily telegraph. ” They are grotesque, spiny creatures, capable of inflating their bodies witti air until they become spherical. This nabit is prooably protective, since when the skin is extended the spines become erectile and proof against the attacks or enemies.

Porcupine fish are also able to defend themselves with their teeth, which, being united, form sharp cutting plates. When swallowed, as they are occasionally by large fish such as sharks, they are able by means of these teeth to eat their way out of not only the stomach, but of the sides of the body. As a result it is the giant that dies and the porcupine fish continues on its journey none the worse ior its .Jonah-like experience. In some, parts of the Far East the fish is caught by the native children, blown out, and used as a substitute for a football. The flesh of the creature is stated to be highly poisonous, and in the ancient days in Japan a common method of committing suicide was to make a meal off a porcupine fish.

Some crabs, remarkaule for the enormous size of their claws, and known by the name of “bashful crabs,” from their habit of seeking protection by burying themselves in the sand, form part of the new collection. Crabs, like mo?t other crustaceans, oast their shells at frequent intervals, and after moulting, and before the hardening of the new armour, are helpless against their numerous enemies. In the time of their need the bashful crabs protect their brethren by taking them under their gigantic claws until the shells have become hardened.

Other specimens collected in Madeiran waters and brought to the Regent’s Park under-water zoo, include blue, green, and yellow jazz-fish, scarlet cardinal fish, chocolate and purple castanet fish, and giant coral red hermit crabs weighing, with their nine-inch long shells, over 21b each.