baby thresher sharks

one of the things i like about going to the "filet palapa" everyday is seeing something different. something that i don't see diving or snorkeling. but then the downside to that is if it's rare or a shark then i feel bad that it died. =(

so imagine my torned-ness when i saw someone caught a thresher shark. it was this absolutely gorgeous animal. dark dark indigo blue on top with this huge eye and caudal fin. thresher sharks get their common name from the extremely long caudal fin. so imagine my horror when i'm not looking and two pups fall out of her while she's being fileted and when i turn back around some kids have them and are carrying them around, smacking them and swinging them by their tails.

i, of course, immediately confiscate them from the little bastards (these were actually american kids believe it or not, i know after my puppy tossing post you immediately thought it was the mexican kids but it wasn't).

ahem. i try to ascertain how long the shark was on the boat but it's clear the pups are beyond saving. and i'm sad. but i put them on ice and take them home.

many sharks give live birth, so as you can imagine these are perfectly formed mini sharks that most likely would have been born anyday. and i'm disappointed that the pictures don't really show how perfectly glistenly indigoirridescent purple these little creatures were.




then the next day, FOURTH OF JULY in the states, i'm at the filet table again and a guy has caught ANOTHER thresher shark. and it's female. so i ask the guy (durnk guy) when he caught it and he said on the way in. so as it's being fileted i grab a knife and cut open the intestines. and out spills some poo-ey looking stuff and two baby sharks. of course, i get the stinkeye from the filet guy for spilling the guts but i don't care i grab the babies and take them down to the water. Tawny is there with me this day so she takes one and we basicly push these babies through the water, pumping their tails back and forth and after about a half hour of this, the sharks swim off on their own. and we're stoked. and drunk guy SAYS he's stoked because he just wanted his picture with it and didn't know it had babies (i.e. he wasn't interested in the meat, he just wanted to kill it and get his picture taken with this amazing animal and as a "tip" leave the carcass for the filet guys. you know, my FAVORITE kinda fisherman.

so i can only hope those babies made it.