DIVE LOG Australasia

This is an extremely rare and highly prized photo from Lissenung Island of a nursery for very young Grey Reef sharks The pack of baby sharks live in the safe territory of the protective parents.

The baby shark can only feed after it has developed teeth. Once the foetus has developed a mouth and teeth, the mother can feed it with the extra eggs. Baby shark is being fed solids within the womb! This so called Oophagy occurs in Thresher sharks, Makos, Tawny Nurse sharks, Basking sharks and Great White sharks. (Oo is a prefix for eggs and phagy refers to eating. Oophagy means egg eating.

Baby Great White sharks are born at about 1.5 metres. They are white and are covered in uterine milk which has helped them to grow so large. Great whites are now thought to use a combination of Yolk Sac Placenta, uterine milk and Oophagy. Great Whites eat unfertilised eggs which are produced continuously by the ovaries. They give birth to 3 to 10 babies.

Female Tiger sharks can give birth to up to eighty baby sharks.

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DIVE LOG Australasia #408 - October ‘24