Remarkable shark births

02december2009
Source: ecomare.nl and kellytarltons.co.nz
In a short period of time two remarkable shark births reached the news. On the conveyer belt of a cutter 11 Bramble Sharks were born and in an aquarium in New Zealand a shark performed a C-section on another shark ...
which produced 8 School Sharks.
While cleaning a Bramble Shark that was just caught, 11 young were found. The pups were about to be born, because the yolk sac was already gone and the young were 25-30 centimetres long. The young sharks were taken to Ecomare (a shelter). They are fed with small chunks of fish. Once they get bogger they will be moved to a sea aquarium, where they can keep the Smallspotted Catsharks company.

In the Kelly Tarlton’s aquarium in Auckland, New Zealand, visitors were surprised when a Broadnose Sevengill Shark bit a huge hole in a School Shark, from which 4 pups emerged. The staff was warned and when the mother shark was taken back with her four pups, another four were born via the wound.

Unknowingly, the aggressive Broadnose Sevengill Shark probably saved the pups’ lives. The keepers did not know the shark was pregnant and if the pups had been born normally, they probably would have been eaten by the other sharks in the aquarium.

Although the young School Sharks were born a bit prematurely, they are healthy. They are fed with herring and mullet and will be released into wild in about two weeks.

Both shark species are ovoviviparous, which means the eggs develop inside the mother and also hatch there.