14
October 1997
Pregnant
Shark Caught, Eight Young Saved.
Eight embryos, pink in color,
the buyer donated 5 to the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium (NMMBA).
Chen, the buyer and also the
owner of a private museum, a shark dealer at Chen-gung dock, Taidung County,
saved 8 embryos from a captured female great white shark (GW) on 13 October
(1997). Five of them were collected by researchers at NMMBA. If they can survive and be raised, it would be a
great success in our country's shark biology research.
These 8 embryos, about
50-60 cm long, are pink all over. The gills are exceptionally large. There are
big eggs at the middle of the bodies which are their growing sources. [They are not big eggs, they are yolk-stomachs full of
little eggs that the ovary produced and the embryos ate]. Sharp teeth
can be seen in their mouth yet the eyes are not fully formed. The pectoral fins
are very large and look like chicken wings without leather.
According to Chen, the
captured GW was caught yesterday in a set-net in Baisolane. The shark weighed
2000 taijin (1200 kg) and was about 7
meters long [length estimate from weight using Mollet
et al. 1996 is about 5 m TL], which is
the largest caught at Chen-gung so far. The shark was brought to the dock at 10
am. When gutting the shark, they found that the stomach was very big, and the
shark itself was very oily, so they guessed that there were embryos inside.
Therefore, they took much care when cutting the belly and indeed 8 embryos were
found.
Having the experience of saving
43 tiger shark embryos on May 12 (1997), Chen kept the 8 embryos in his tank
and called the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium. Because the embryos looked very
weird, local people all felt strange when seeing them.
The NMMBA researchers arrived at 7 pm. Witnessing 8 surviving
embryos , Lue, the leader of the team pointed out excitedly that this is the
first time to see such small embryos in Taiwan. He estimated these shark would
be very difficult to keep alive, but if it worked, it would be a great success
in our research. [Hard to
say if these early- to mid-term embryos could have been kept alive. One would
have had to simulate the uterus of the mother, a ÒsoupyÓ liquid with nutritive
egg cases containing nutritive eggs which probably spill out easily. I donÕt
know if egg-yolk from chicken eggs would have been sufficient].
Follow
up article 15 October 1997
Researchers
not Familiar with their Biology,
Eight
Young Sharks Dead
The 8 embryos from a
gutted female GW on the 13th, comprising 3 brought back and kept in a tank by
the fish dealer and 5 brought back by the NMMBA researchers all died on 14th
because they were too young. All Researchers were disappointed.
According to Lue, NMMBA
researcher, the 5 they brought back were still embryos and very fragile. No
great white shark reproduction studies are available world wide that could have
been consulted. Therefore, the chance of raising these embryos is very small.
They brought back 4 young tiger sharks in May and the sharks died 2 monthes
later. The main reason is people still don't understand the biology of these
sharks either.
The 3 embryos brought back by fish dealer Chen also died the next morning. Chen said he wants to taxidermy one of them.
