Tuesday 5 July 2011

more on crypto cyclops shark


Jul 03, 2011
Details emerge regarding capture of one-eyed 'Cyclops' shark

Cyclops1 An albino, one-eyed shark fetus removed from a pregnant bull shark captured recently in the Sea of Cortez was one of 10 babies inside the large predator. All others were normal in color and appearance.A story with very few details went viral during the past week, mainly because one photo (at right) revealed a white, three-foot-long shark with what appeared to be a single eye perfectly centered in its head, just above the mouth.Skeptics abounded. One Southern California-based scientist jokingly identified the three-foot fetus as "Cycloptomus," believing the photo to be doctored and part of a hoax.The story became more believable after Felipe Galvan, a prominent Mexican scientist, acknowledged that he had inspected the shark and had even written a paper on the discovery. The paper is under scientific review.But on Saturday more details emerged. Tracy Ehrenberg, general manager of Pisces Sportfishing in Cabo San Lucas, interviewed the fisherman who made the catch southeast of La Paz, Mexico, the capital of Baja California Sur.Ehrenberg said on the Pisces blog that the mother bull shark was caught on a large hook baited with ballyhoo, tethered to a line beneath a buoy fixed in place by another line anchored by a sand bag. The shark was dead when it was hauled up, long after the set was made near Cerralvo Island.It was taken ashore and filleted, a process that revealed nine normal pups and the albino, one-eyed fetus.


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