First ever image of shark giving birth in the wild captured

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First ever image of shark giving birth in the wild captured

Posted by sciencetech-blog on Friday, January 16, 2015 Label:

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The first ever record of an oceanic shark giving birth has been uncovered by scientists.

The photo, taken off Malapascua Island in the Philippines, reveals the body of an elusive baby thresher shark emerging from its mother.

But the image by Australian photographer, Attila Kaszo, was left lying in a junk computer folder for years after biologists failed to spot its significance.

The first record of an oceanic shark giving birth has been uncovered by scientists. The photo, taken in the Philippines several in 2013, reveals the body of an elusive baby thresher shark emerging from its mother

While researchers know that most shark species give birth to live young, the conditions under which they do so has been a mystery.

Researchers believe this image could help shed light on how and where sharks give birth.

Lead researcher Dr Simon Oliver from the University of Chester told BBC News that seeing the image was one of the most exciting moments of his career.

The shark was at a seamount – or undersea mountain – which acts as an area where the creatures can clean themselves by having parasites eaten away by smaller fish wrasse.

The image was captured off Malapascua Island in in the Visayan Sea, 4.2 miles (6.8km) across a shallow strait from the northernmost tip of Cebu Island

FEMALE SHARKS ALWAYS RETURN TO THEIR BIRTHPLACE TO HAVE BABIES

For sharks, there is no place like home.

This is especially true when these magnificent creatures want to give birth after having wandered far and wide across the planet's oceans for several years at time.

A 20-year study, conducted in the Bahamas, shows that despite their impressive travels, female lemon sharks always return to the same location where they were born to give birth.

The idea of females returning to their place of birth has been shown in a number of marine species, including salmon and sea turtles.

The international team, who reported their findings in the journal Molecular Ecology, said this is the first time this behaviour has been seen sharks.

'We used each shark's individual DNA fingerprint to construct a large family tree,' explained Dr Kevin Feldheim at The Field Museum and the lead author of the study.

'We found that new born sharks captured in the mid-1990s left the safety of the islands when they were between five and eight years old.

'We observed a large female pelagic thresher shark swimming back and forth across a cleaning station in an agitated state,' Dr Oliver wrote in the journal Coral Reefs.

'We were unable to decipher the cause of the shark's distress from our observation post 50ft (15 metres) away, although it was evident that cleaner wrasse were taking bites from its pelvic region.

'We observed the shark for a total of four minutes, during which we took its photograph for identification purposes.'

Researchers believe that this area also serves as a pupping ground, and that images of more sharks giving birth could be taken in the future.

Tese creatures are endangered as a result of human activities. Sharks live a long time and take many years to mature, which is one reason why they are extremely vulnerable to overfishing

'It may well be, or at least the first time that the event has been photographed, but this is always difficult to say definitively,' Dr Simon Thorrold, a senior scientist from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts told the BBC.

Thresher sharks, also known as fox sharks, received their name due to their predatory habits.

Unlike other shark species, thresher sharks use their whip-like tail to swat-and-swipe at schools of fish, allowing them to stun and eat their prey.

But these creatures are endangered as a result of human activities.

Sharks live a long time and take many years to mature, which is one reason why they are extremely vulnerable to overfishing

All three thresher shark species are listed as either 'Threatened' or 'Vulnerable' to extinction by the IUCN Red List.

Dr Simon Thorrold that the photograph, while shedding light on these mysterious creatures, may be of 'limited importance' when it comes to shark conservation.

All three thresher shark species are listed as either 'Threatened' or 'Vulnerable' to extinction by the IUCN

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