A SELECTION of bizarre, corkscrew-shaped tropical shark eggs have gone on display at the Blue Planet Aquarium in the run up to Easter.
The eggs are from a Port Jackson shark in the Cheshire Oaks aquarium’s giant 3.8 million litre Caribbean Reef display.
Measuring up to 1.6 metres in length, the Port Jackson is mainly nocturnal and only found off the coast of Australia.
After laying their eggs the females wedge them into rocky crevices where their corkscrew shape prevents them from being dislodged.
In addition to the Port Jackson egg-cases the aquarium has also put a selection of other tropical shark and rays cases on display in their new Venom feature.
Blue Planet’s Paul Renolds said: “We’ve seen a steady increase in the numbers of eggs being produced over recent weeks and it’s rapidly becoming a full time job for us just to keep collecting them.
“Not all the eggs will be fertile but we’re confident that quite a number are and we can already see the tiny sharks wriggling about inside some of the protective egg-cases.
“It will be particularly good to be able to show people just how small most species of shark are when they are born and how long they take to develop.”
As well as the baby shark and rays, the aquarium is also celebrating the birth of a trio of baby Asian short claw otters.
The tiny babies - each weighing less than 60 grams - are the first otters to have been born at the aquarium, although they will not appear outside their holt for up to a month.
They are born blind and it is only after about 40 days that their eyes open for the first time.
