Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T18:00:06.312Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Occurrence and Significance of Tooth Cuts on the Blue Shark (Prionace Glauca L.) From British Waters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

J. D. Stevens
Affiliation:
8 Courtenay St, Salcombe, Devon

Extract

In this investigation of the wounds occurring on blue sharks, tooth cuts were found only on females over 180 cm long, supporting the view that they are courtship scars incurred during breeding. However, it seems unlikely that these sharks normally mate in British waters. It is suggested that tooth cuts can provide information on the size at sexual maturity of the blue shark in European seas.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bigelow, H. B. & Schroeder, W. C., 1948. Fishes of the western North Atlantic Pt. 1 (Sharks). Memoirs. Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 1, 59576.Google Scholar
Bolau, H., 1881. Über die Paarung und Fortpflanzung der Scyllium-Arten. Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Zoologie, 35, 321–5.Google Scholar
Budker, P., 1971. The Life of Sharks (revised and translated from the French), XVII, 222 pp. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Caunter, J. A. L., 1961. Shark Angling in Great Britain, Angling Times Series, 145 pp. London: G. Allen and Unwin Ltd.Google Scholar
Clark, E., 1963. The maintenance of sharks in captivity, with a report on their instrumental conditioning. In: Sharks and Survival (ed. Gilbert, P. W.), chapter 4, 145–6. Boston: D. C. Heath and Co.Google Scholar
Dempster, R. P. & Herald, E. S., 1961. Notes on the horn shark Heterodontus francisci, with observations on mating activities. Occasional Papers of the California Academy of Sciences, 33, 17.Google Scholar
Lo, Bianco S., 1909. Notizie biologiche riguardanti specialmente il periodo di maturita sessuale degli animali del golfo di Napoli. Mittheilungen aus der Zoologischen Station zu Neapel, 19, 513761.Google Scholar
Mccormick, H. W., Allen, T. & Young, W. E., 1963. In Shadows in the Sea, p. 236. (Quote from Gudger, E. W..) London: Sidgwick and Jackson.Google Scholar
Metten, H., 1939. Studies on the reproduction of the dogfish. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Ser. B, 230, 217–38.Google Scholar
Prasad, R. R., 1945. The structure, phylogenetic significance and function of the nidamental glands of some elasmobranchs of the Madras coast. Proceedings of the National Institute of Sciences of India, 11 (3), 282302.Google Scholar
Springer, S., 1960. Natural history of the sandbar shark Eulamia milberti. Fishery Bulletin of Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Department of Interior, 61 (178), 138.Google Scholar
Suda, A., 1953. Ecological study on the blue shark (Prionace glauca Linne) (Translated from the Japanese). South Seas Area Fisheries Research Laboratory report, 26 (1), 111.Google Scholar
Tucker, D. W. & Newnham, C. T., 1957. The blue shark Prionace glauca (L.) breeds in the British seas. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Ser. 12, 10 (117), 673–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Beneden, P. J., 1871. Les poissons des côtes de Belgique, leurs parasites et leurs commensaux. Memoires de I'Academie r. de Belgique Classe des sciences collection, 38, xx + 100.Google Scholar