Caesarean shark pups released into wild

Andrew Christie of Kelly Tarlton's releases a 4-month-old school shark pup into the Waitemata Harbour. Photo / Richard Robinson

Eight baby sharks born after a bizarre accidental caesarean section last year were released into the wild yesterday.

The young school sharks became famous in November after visitors to Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World watched stunned as another, much bigger shark bit their mother.

Staff were initially sceptical when visitors came running to tell them the baby sharks were spilling from a wound in the female school shark's stomach - courtesy of a large bite from a broadnose sevengill shark.

They found a female with a gaping stomach wound and four premature but healthy babies swimming in the tank. Four more baby sharks followed.

Sharks commonly bite each other, but in this case the bite was in the perfect place to release the babies without killing them. Their mother died of her injuries.

The pups are now 45cm long (they will grow to 1.6m) and strong enough to have a good chance of surviving in the wild. They were released into the Waitemata Harbour because this is where they would probably have been born if their mother was not in captivity.

Kelly Tarlton's curator Andrew Christie said the biggest danger for them now was being turned into fish and chips - or eaten by a bigger shark. School sharks have never been known to attack a person.

"They are not rare but they are under threat from fishing," he said. "They are commonly caught for 'lemonfish' and used in fish and chips."

Mr Christie said the pups were popular with visitors after they were taken from the main tank and put in a nursery tank to grow.

At the time of their birth Kelly Tarlton's aquarist Fiona Davies said the unusual delivery had probably saved the baby sharks' lives.

Staff did not know the mother was pregnant and, had she given birth naturally, most likely at night, the babies would have been eaten by adult sharks and stingrays before staff could rescue them.