Four year courtship spawns rare shark eggs in Bray

A pair of rare sharks, whose numbers are in decline in the wild, appear to have bred successfully in Co Wicklow.

After four years of waiting scientists say eggs from the short tail nurse sharks are growing in their tanks at the Sealife Centre in Bray and baby sharks - or pups – are expected by the end of the year.

The female shark was born in Sea Life in 2006 from a wild egg and is one of the first of the species to breed in captivity. The male shark was also born in 2006, in Artis Zoo in Amsterdam, and came to Bray on loan in 2013 as part of a European breeding programme.

Romance did not blossom immediately, and it took four years of courtship before the pair started their family.

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Short tail nurse sharks are only found in three locations in the wild - off the coasts of Tanzania and Kenya in East Africa and in the waters surrounding Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

‘Vulnerable’

The shark has been placed on the ‘vulnerable’ list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Its decline has been attributed to commercial overfishing for food and particularly for its fins, which are regarded as a delicacy in Asia and sell for around €170 per kg.

The fish is also caught in nets in the heavily fished inshore waters of East Africa. It has also suffered from the destruction of its natural habitat, coral reefs.

Described as an “ inshore bottom dwelling species”, Sealife said the sharks have a “unique feeding apparatus with a small mouth but an enlarged pharynx that allows it to create a vacuum and suck up its prey”.

The shark is a nocturnal feeder, preying on sea urchins, squid and octopus. It has a habit of regularly floating upside down and can live for up to 33 years in captivity, becoming mature when it is 56cm long.

Pat O’Suilleabhain, director of Sea Life Bray, said it was an achievement to have the rare sharks breed successfully in Ireland. “There is little known about their breeding habits so there is great excitement throughout Europe as we wait for the pups to hatch,” he said.