Featured Image Credit:Epic Wildlife
You have probably stumbled across a shark birth video on the internet at some point. Yes, it is an amazing event to witness the miracle of life happening for a shark. However, there is, unfortunately, a hidden dark side to these videos that has recently come to life.
Sharks that are giving birth in front of a camera have usually just been caught by a fisherman. The shark starts giving birth and the fisherman pulls out his camera to capture the moment. It seems like a great thing, right? The video could be used to help researchers or help more people like sharks. Although the videos do help with those two causes, the other side is that the female loses her babies.
That’s right, scientists have found that 24% of pregnant females abort their pups or experience a premature labor when caught by fishermen. So the time was not right to give birth, but due to circumstances, the females have to do it anyways. It is a horrible byproduct of sharks being caught by humans.
Scientists were already worried about shark populations around the world, but this new development has them even more worried. Researchers are working on a method to mitigate the number of sharks that initiate a birth. If they find a good method, then they will share it with fishermen to help prevent future shark premature shark births.