Page 11 - Carcharodon2001

ANNALES · Ser. hist. nat. · 11 · 2001 · 2 (25)

Alessandro DE MADDALENA et al.: AN ANALYSIS OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCES OF THE LARGEST GREAT WHITE SHARKS, ..., 193-206

Tab. 3: Estimates of the white shark /engths (in centimetres) obtained through examination of photographic evi-
dences.
Tab. 3: Ocene dol.tin (v centimetrih) primerkov belih morskih volkov na osnovi preutevanih fotografij.

DATE LOCATION TOT Tln PRC
Procida, ltaly 507 491 398
june 1924 Enfola, Isola d'Elba, ltaly 597-613 579-594 469-482
12 August 1938 Ganzirri, Sicily, ltaly 666 645 523
19 june 1961 Piran, Slovenia 492-547 477-530 387-430
22 October 1963 Isola la Formica, Isole Egadi, ltaly 594 575 466
May 1974 Filfla, Malta 668-681 647-660 525-535
17 Aprii 1987 Sète, France 591 572 464
9 january 1991

CONCLUSJONS of preservation of the specimen, thus it is impossible to

use it to estimate the length of the shark. In the end we

Of the 7 examined specimens, 5 were estimated to believe that there is no reason to refute the 640 cm

measure over 590 cm TOT (Tab. 3). Of these, at least length reported for this specimen by the source. The only

two (Malta 1987 and Ganzirri 1961) greatly exceed 600 doubt remains about the fact that it is unknown whether

cm, both in TOT and in Tln. These two specimens this measure was taken as TOT, Tln or in another way.

could even be the largest ever recorded world-wide. But In the end let us refer to the enormous specimen

we should also consider the most solid cases of other cited in Barrull & Mate (2001 ), reported by Dr. juan

possibly larger specimens reported unti! today. These Antonio Moreno. The shark was caught in 1982 off Da-

are the following three. kar, Senegal. Dr. Moreno eyewitnessed the landing of

The discussed specimen caught off Kangaroo lsland, the specimen, but he did not get the permission to

Australia, in May 1987 and reported to be over 7 m in measure the shark with a ruler, nor to take photog;raphs.

length, but never measured Oury1. 1987; Cappa, 1998; · Or. Morencrestimated its total length at over 800 cm: he
Mollet et al., 1996). The only photographic evidences reached this conclusion measuring it as Tln, twice, with

known to us (published in jury, 1987 and Ellis & McCo- its feet. jaws of this specimen were sold to an American
sker, 1991) show the head only, cut at the level of the customer for 1000 U.S. dollars (J. A. Moreno, pers.
second gill slit, and a peetoral fin, but this picture, for the comm.). Although the measure reported cannot be re-

position of the photographer and of the reference, cannot garded as accurate, considering the unusual way it was

be considered useful fora reliable estimate. Mike Cappo taken (this is the reason why Dr. Moreno never pub-

reported that Peter Riseley (the fisherman that caught the lished a report on this specimen), this case is undoubt-

shark) measured the head length from first gill slit to be edly of a special interest, being the only in which a so
53 inches (135 cm) (H. Mollet, pers. comm.), almost large specimen was examined by an ichthyologist and

surely as PG1 (prebranchial length); Mollet et al. (1996) specialist in the study of sharks.

reported this PG1 as "estimated value". On the basis of With this work we believe to have definitively dem-
the Lausanne specimen, 135 cm PG1 corresponds to 645 onstrated that C. carcharias can, in rare and exceptional

cm TOT, 625 cm Tln, 507 cm PRC. cases, exceed 6 meters in length, reaching at least 640-

About the specimen caught in 1945 off Castillo de 660 cm TOT and very probably even more.

Cojimar, Cuba, that was reported to be 640 cm in length

(Bigelow & Schroeder, 1948; Guitart-Manday & Milera, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1974), the contestation of this case presented in Randall

(1987) is not acceptable, since it is based on wrong as- Very special thanks to ali the people that offered

sumptions. In fact we noticed that: a) the preserved ver- their help in collecting data, photographs and generai

tebra was not necessarily the largest of the vertebra! col- information for this work: Alex Buttigieg, an anonymous

umn, and therefore it could not be used to obtain the Maltese friend, Michael Darmanin, Anthony Gruppetta,

precise length of the specimen, b) in generai it has carne john Gullaumier, Gildo Gavanelli, Giuliano Chiocca,

out that the size of the largest anterior tooth of the upper juan Antonio Moreno, Guy Oliver, Henry Mollet, Nitto

jaw cannot be considered as a sufficiently reliable index Minneo, Gioacchino Cataldo, Henri Cappetta, Alen

of the length of a large white shark, c) the girth of the Soldo, Alberto Zanoli and jean Attard. We also thank

body (and consequently the height of the body at the three referees for their helpful comments. A particular

level of the first dorsal fin) shows wide variation from thanks from Alessandro De Maddalena goes to Alessan-

specimen to specimen, and depending even on the state dra Baldi.

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