Carpet Shark Diary Part 3

 Hello again.  It’s been very busy for us at the Marine Education Centre with a news article in the Wellingtonian about the “little one.”  On that subject our little one is starting to grow bigger by the day.  The last time I measured, it was a whopping 4cm in length.  Ok it’s not like its big brother the Great White that can get up to 6m in length, but still it’s growing and quickly now.   I can say this since you can now see the yolk is getting smaller.  When it was first laid, the yolk was 4cm by 3cm, now it’s 3x3cm.

One thing I have noticed and recorded, is that it looks like the umbilical cord that attaches the shark to the egg has gotten longer. This could be due to the fact it has grown in size and needs more room to wiggle round in the egg case. Speaking of wiggling round it seems to do it in bursts. It will be still for a while then all of a sudden start shaking and wiggling all over the place and then settle down again.

 When it does wiggle, it has an “eel/snake” like motion to it. This could have something to do with the shape of the body, as it has a more eel-like body now rather than a tadpole like look. This could be part of the metamorphous of the animal growing as the different body parts start to take on a more “shark” like shape.

What can now be seen are the gill filaments.  These look like a bunch of red string that stick out of where the neck would be. The reason for this is they allow the shark to breathe and may be another reason why it wiggles so much. Maybe it needs to have yolk fluid flow over them, or not!

The egg case still hasn’t darkened and, like I said in a post before, I suspect it has to do with the amount of light it’s getting. Thanks to one of our friends at NIWA we’ve been given a HOBO. This is a device that will read the light and temperature in the tank every 15minutes for three hundred days. So we can now record just how much light the egg is getting.

I have seen some tiny like creatures that have started to grow on the egg case called bryozoans. You don’t need to worry, they won’t harm the baby shark in any way.  They just like the egg case and think it will make a great spot to build there little homes.

I’ve saved the best bit for last. The baby now has eyes! Well, it has eye spots in the area where the eyes will develop from. The wicked part is you can see them with your own eyes.

It’s been 17 weeks since it was laid and I wonder what we’ll see in the coming months.

So, I’d like to invite everyone to come on down to the Island Bay Bait House Aquarium and SEE the little one for yourself.   We’re open from 10am to 3pm every Sunday.

I would love to know what your opinions are and what you think will happen.

Eddie (Future Marine Biologist)   

If you'd like to see the embryo moving, click here