Fisherman Performs C-Section On Dead Pregnant Shark, Takes Out 98 Live Baby Sharks
Sep 12, 2019 by apost team
In August 2018, a fisherman performed a C-section on a dead shark and pulled out 98 living pups. He then released them into the ocean.
Mathew Orlov, 46, had been fishing off the coast of the Barwon Islands in Australia when he caught a sevengill shark that was eight feet and eight inches long, reports Metro. He felt violent tugs on the line which made him suspect that his catch was being attacked by another predator. When he pulled the shark on board, he saw bite marks from another shark.
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Orlov reported that the shark was already dead when he brought her on board. He saw movement within the shark’s abdomen and realized that he had hooked a pregnant female. He, therefore, decided to perform a C-section to try and save her young. While he had never performed a C-section on a shark before, he had heard about the procedure from other fishermen.
“When I saw the belly moving, instinct kicked in," he's reported as saying in Metro. "I’ve never done anything like this before, but I’ve fishing long enough to know we needed to get the pups out as quickly as possible."
Orlov thus cut the shark open, and its babies started popping out. He counted them as he tossed them in the ocean and was startled to find that there had been 98 pups. While Orlov reported that the pups swam off healthily, some experts expressed skepticism about their chances of survival.
Other experts point out that the pups’ survival depends on how close to being full-term they were. A sevengill shark’s pregnancy lasts about a year, and they typically have between 70 and 90 pups.
Orlov posted a video of his experience, and Jane Williamson, an associate professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, was one of the people who saw it. While she was on of the shark experts who expressed doubt about the ability of the premature pups to survive, she did note that none of them had had a yolk sac, which meant that they might be close enough to being fully developed to have a chance of surviving. Assuming they do survive to adulthood, sevengill sharks can live for 30 years.
Orlov reported having an adrenaline rush while removing the pups, and he was overwhelmed that there were so many. Orlov catches fish for food, and he and his family ate the mother shark.
Have you read this story before? Did you know that some sharks have live birth? Tell us your experience in the comments below and pass this extraordinary story on to your animal-loving friends, as well.