DO SHARKS HARBOUR THEIR YOUNG?

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 2, 17 April 1880, Page 3 (Supplement)

DO SHARKS HARBOUR THEIR YOUNG?

An interesting specimen of porbeaghshark fLamna punctata) -was oaughfc recently off Great Neck, L. I. It was a female, and was sent to Mr. E. Q-. Blackford, of that city, who says: "When I received her she had not been dead more than- seven hours. Ecom the immense size of her stomach, I thought she must have swallowed a barrel or two of moss bunkers, and to gratify my curiosity I opened her.- Imagine my surprise "when, instead of moss bunkers, I found ten little sharks, evidently her offspring,- and all just the' Baine size— exactly two feet' long. I Bhould say they were about six months old, for a young shark when hatched from the egg measures about four inches". " It has been a disputed question among nshepnen for some time, whether young^harks, in' time of danger, do not seek safely in their mother's stomach. I think this case proves that they do, for the little ones were perfectly sound ; there was no mark, on them as if digestion had begun, and I have not a doubt but that if the mother had not been captured, as soon as the excitement was over, the' little ones would have worked their way out. into salt water again, and in due time been big enough to give some unfortunate fisherman considerable trouble." The specimen measured six feet eleven inches in. length, and was' captured lin a school of moss bunkers or