Albino 'cyclops' shark pup is not just fish tale, says expert
Courtesy of Pisces SportfishingA fisherman shows off his prized catch - described as an albino, cyclopic bull shark pup.
BY Ethan Sacks DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, October 18th 2011
It may not be a whopper of a fish tale after all.
Four months after viral Internet photos of a dead, one-eyed albino shark pup were panned as a hoax, a Mexican marine biologist has surfaced saying the fish is the real deal, LiveScience reported.
Dr. Felipe Galvan Magana, a shark expert at the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine Science, is reportedly on the verge of releasing a scientific paper claiming the find - which was found inside a pregnant bull shark caught by a local commercial fisherman off Cabo San Lucas is June - is a rare case of "Cyclopia."
Tracy Ehring, manager of Pisces Sportfishing, which first posted the photos on the company blog in July, told The News she stumbled on the discovery when a client told her he saw pictures that another fisherman had taken of the bug-eyed, fully-developed pup.
"When I saw the first picture, I said, 'No way,' but then I looked at it closely," says Ehring. "I went to work tracking it down and verifying."
Four months after viral Internet photos of a dead, one-eyed albino shark pup were panned as a hoax, a Mexican marine biologist has surfaced saying the fish is the real deal, LiveScience reported.
Dr. Felipe Galvan Magana, a shark expert at the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine Science, is reportedly on the verge of releasing a scientific paper claiming the find - which was found inside a pregnant bull shark caught by a local commercial fisherman off Cabo San Lucas is June - is a rare case of "Cyclopia."
Tracy Ehring, manager of Pisces Sportfishing, which first posted the photos on the company blog in July, told The News she stumbled on the discovery when a client told her he saw pictures that another fisherman had taken of the bug-eyed, fully-developed pup.
"When I saw the first picture, I said, 'No way,' but then I looked at it closely," says Ehring. "I went to work tracking it down and verifying."
Albino 'cyclops' shark pup is not just fish tale, says expertThe fisherman told her that the albino was one of 10 pups found inside the 280-pound, 10-foot-long female shark, according to Ehring. The other nine were normal bull sharks.
"This is extremely rare. As far as I know, less than 50 examples of an abnormality like this have been recorded," Galvan Magana posted on the Pisces blog.Cyclopia, named after the legendary monster from Greek mythology, is a birth defect where the embryo's eyes fail to split into two.
Not everyone, however, bought the photos hook, line and sinker.
"People did not believe us," Ehring says. "You wouldn't believe the comments we got like, 'A Cabbage Patch Doll is missing an eye."
But that didn't stop calls from as far away as Europe -- including from "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" -- seeking to purchase, rent or borrow the carcass. Don't bother calling: it's locked up in Galvan Magana's university as it's being studied.
"I think it's important that people see this," says Ehring, referring to the impending report. "We want to shut the mouths of the skeptics."
No comments:
Post a Comment