Experts have generally believed that hammerhead sharks produce anything between 20 and 40 pups. The figure of 55 is probably the highest ever recorded.
According to US media reports the shark was caught by a Port Charlotte fisherman, who passed it on for examination by scientists at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.
With all its pups the shark, estimated at between 40 and 50 years old, was found to weigh 1280 pounds. Heartrendingly, all bar three of the pups were reported to be full-term and due to be born within days.
The fisherman is reported to have said that he did not realise the shark was pregnant, otherwise he’d have let it go. Since the catch he had put three other caught sharks back into the sea. |
