'Shark caesarean' pups released into wild

Eight baby school shark pups born in a bizarre caesarean section at Kelly Tarlton's in Auckland last year were released into open waters yesterday.

The pups were born premature but healthy on November, from a gash their mother sustained when she was bitten by a much larger broadnose sevengill shark.

Now the pups, weighing 415 grams and measuring 45cm each on average, were strong enough to have every chance of survival in the wild, Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World curator Andrew Christie said.

The sharks were released into Auckland's Waitemata Harbour because that was where they would have likely been born if their mother hadn't come to the marine centre.

The sharks - even once fully grown - will be no danger to people who swim in the harbour, Mr Christie said.

"Every year thousands of shark pups just like these guys are born in the waters around Auckland. Despite their fearsome reputation, sharks represent a very low risk to humans and in fact there hasn't been a single recorded school shark attack."

Staff at Kelly Tartlon's were alerted to the strange birth by visitors, so staff removed the premature sharks from the predator tank and quarantined them.

Sharks don't have maternal instincts and just birth or "drop" their babies and swim off - leaving the pups to fend for themselves, Mr Christie said.

Because of this, the shark pups were born with the skills they needed to develop to survive in the wild.

"If anything our eight school shark pups will have a better chance of survivability. Born prematurely in the wild their chances of seeing adulthood would have been very small, but now - because they have grown strong and healthy during the past four months - these pups have a better than average chance of making it."

Despite emergency medical treatment and ongoing monitoring and care, the pup's mother eventually succumbed to her injuries, Mr Christie said.

- NZPA