SHARKS BESIEGE MELBOURNE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 182, 31 January 1912, Page 2

SHARKS BESIEGE MELBOURNE

POET PHILIP INFESTED. Melbourne, January 12. A shark lift in length was captured at Port Melbourne last week, and maneaters are more prevalent in Hobson's Bay than they have been for many years. Major J. M, Semmens, of the Fisheries and Game Department, stated that the bay was so badly infested with sharks that fishermen were unable to use mesh nets. The sharks included the tiger shark, the basking 1 shark, the grey nurse, the hammerheaded shark, the carpet shark, and others. "The tiger and the grey nurse," he added, "are sometimes very fierce indeed, and it may be accepted as a general rule that the Port Philip shark is not so much ta be feared as the sharks of warmer latitudes. "Most sharks are viviparous, that is, their young are born alive, and riot hatched from eggs, but whether, like, most viviparous animals, they are roused to fury by any interference with their young, I am not sure. I do not believe to have an exact knowledge of the habits of these creatures. '•'Some sharks, on the other hand, lay eggs. Among these are the Port Jackson shark, which lays an egg with a horny covering. There is a very large shark, of Greenland, which lays eggs without anv such covering. "Sharks," concluded Major Semmens, "of course, have their uses. In our bay they are invaluable as scavengers. They eat dead fish, and the refuse thrown overboard from steamers and oilier objectionable tilings. In the winter they are not in evidence; I suppose they are then lying in the deep and consequently warmer waters."