Australian fisherman performs emergency surgery on a shark, saves 98 pups
A fisherman in Australia saved 98 shark pups from the stomach of their mauled mother.
Mathew Orlov from Geelong, Australia got the shock of his life when he witnessed a female Sevengill shark being mauled by another predator off the coast of Victoria, Australia. According to Metro, the shark was dead by the time he reeled it in.
But that is not where the shark's story ended. Mathew recalls noticing that the shark's stomach was moving, and says that is when "instinct kicked in". He immediately began an impromptu C-section surgery on the shark to release the babies.
Sevengill sharks are known to live up to 30 years and can have up to 95 pups at a time, making this shark's three extra babies truly remarkable.
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Mathew describes an "adrenaline rush" that came over him as he freed each baby from the mother's womb. The surgery took nine minutes.
Warning: the following video contains graphic imagery.
Experts say that the survival of the pups is determined by how close their mother was to full-term at the time of their birth. While these 98 babies are premature, it is believed that their chances of survival are high because they were born without yolk sacs.