Nature
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Marine midwifery isn’t something that many people get to have a go at, although as this video shows, sometimes even the ocean’s most fearsome predators need a little helping hand when they’re just starting out in life.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.After buying a bamboo shark while still inside its egg from a pet store, the owner was told to cut the animal free once it reached a certain size. Using a pair of scissors, the unseen deliverer of doom carefully snips through the collagen fibers that make up the egg’s “shell”, releasing the tiny shark to thrash around to its heart’s content.
Often referred to as mermaid’s purses, the eggs of bamboo sharks aren’t particularly egg-like at all, and are more like flat, fishy ravioli, filled with furious little tyrants. Though normally hidden among seaweed on the ocean floor, the eggs can sometimes get swept away by strong currents, occasionally ending up on the shore in countries close to bamboo shark habitats, such as Japan and Australia.
When this occurs, passersby are encouraged to help the unborn sharks out by either returning them to the ocean or caring for them at home in an appropriate saltwater tank before, of course, returning them to the ocean.
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