Save Our Seas Foundation - Projects - Mermaids Purse

Italian divers’ captial? land-locked Milan

2013-02-13T11:07:47+00:00

As of Friday morning, Milan will be the hub of all Italian divers meeting for the 21st EUDI dive show. It will be a golden opportunity to meet old and new friends and ask them about the mermaid’s purses - the eggs of the larger catshark - they see in their dives, which is our low-tech way to pinpoint some of the breeding areas of this shark. Direct interviews to the owners/staff of diving centers will be a key step to close the first part of our survey.

So far results have been very interesting - see the poster we presented at the European Elasmobranch Association meeting last November. The picture emerging is quite clear: this shark does not live (anymore? never has? who knows) all along the coast, but there are some hotspots where lots of eggs can be seen at any time while scuba diving.

Divers lucky enough to visit the Gulf of Naples and its enchanted islands - Capri, Ischia, Procida, a little further up the coast in Ponza and Ventotene - unanimously agree: this is the place to go. A seamount in particular, Banco di Santa Croce, stands out as the nursehound “creche”. Other hotspots can be found further north on the Tuscan coast and up in Liguria, and south in the Strait of Messina. We did not expect to find many along the Eastern side of Italy, where the seafloor is mostly muddy. And yet wherever small reefs emerge - as they do roughly off Venice - mermaid’s purses AND nursheounds can be found as well.

These results are the first picture of the breeding ground of a near-threatened species, and they are due entirely to the help of divers, unknowingly doubling up as scientists: citizen-scientists, on whom MedSharks relies so much for many of our research programs like Operation Baslong Shark. Many researchers around Europe told us they’ll try to replicate it in their waters. Meanwhile, thanks to all the divers who partecipated and thanks to SOSF and co-sponsor ADISUB for helping us!

update from the European “sharkologists”’ meeting!

2012-11-28T16:45:41+00:00

It was an intense week-end at Milan for the 2012 European Elasmobranch Association meeting. Lots of presentations to listen, lots of friends and collegues to catch up with, and lots and lots of ideas and future collaborations have taken shape in the corridors of the Milan University.
We were there too, presenting our preliminary findings of this project. Out ot 90 questionnaires received, we were able to pinpoint four main hotspots, or breeding areas, around Italy. The real hub seems to be centered around the Gulf of Naples and its islands, but other areas include the Tuscan islands and the Portofino promontory, up in the north of Italy. Most of the east coast of Italy is quite sandy and muddy, hardly the place for nursehounds. But dive professionals say that off Venice, in some weird small reefs formed by the skeletons of living and dead marine animals called “tegnue”, mermeid’s purses abound.
We were VERY pleased as many a scientist asked info on how to replicate our project in other seas!

Watch a baby nursehound grow, week by week, in this video

2012-10-24T14:20:02+00:00

This extraordinary video was produced ages ago - in 1977, and you can tell by the funny hair style! - by a group of Sicilian divers who collected two nursehund eggs off Palermo and filmed the development of the baby sharks.
Watch as they film and sketch on paper, week after week, the growth of the two little sharks!
It was a pioneer video which received then the prestigious “Sesto Continente Award”.
With deep gratitude to the cameraman, Alberto Romeo, who uploaded it on youtube expressily for us!

and the winner is…

2012-10-24T14:12:33+00:00

The winner of the Venice underwater photo competition is Claudio Stoppato! With a simple and yet beautiful picture of a mermaid’s purse with a diver in the distance, Claudio well summarized the idea of this project: divers can be citizen scientist and contribute their observation to increase knowledge of a little-known shark species, the nursehound shark. Well done Claudio!
The prize-giving ceremony will take place this coming Saturday, Oct 27th in Venice. The exhibit (look at some pictures here) will be on display until November 11th.

deadline extended: send your pix NOW to Venice!

2012-10-04T16:05:53+00:00

Organizers of the 5th International Venice underwater photo competitions have extended the deadline: you can still submit your beautiful pictures. remember there’s a special “mermaid’s purse” award this year!
Find all the info on the competition website or on our Facebook page
Look at this one, taken by my friend and pioneer UW photographer Guido Picchetti (and don’t worry, you’re not competing against this one!)

submit your best pix of a nursehound egg, and win the Venice Int’l UW photo contest!

2012-09-26T12:22:49+00:00

Summer is not yet over in the Mediterranean, where divers enjoyed the second hottest summer ever recorded (some marine life was not equally happy, though).
Records and pictures of nursehound eggs have been pouring in, and as we’re busy preparing a preliminary report of our project for the European Elasmobranch Association meeting (to be held in Milan in November, more on this later), we’re happy to announce our partnership with the well-known Venice International Underwater Photo Constest “Città di Venezia”.
The contest is held with the cooperation of the Natural History Museum of Venice and has a strong focus on exactely our subjects: topics include “sharks” and “reproduction”, and we’ve just agreed with the organizers to present a special prize to the most beautiful picture of a mermaid’s purse.
So if you have taken a nice picture of a nursehound, submit your pix!
Deadline is October 3rd (more or less…) but as you can submit your images by email it only takes a click. More info on the contest website and here is the direct link to the rules.
Look forward to seeing your pictures!

Ventotene island, a nursery for nursehound visited by… Manta rays!

2012-08-11T18:11:50+00:00

Scores of divers are enjoing August in the Med, possibly the best month to dive here. None more so than Aldo Ferrucci, a professional diver and friend, who’s exploring the many beautiful dive sites of tiny Ventotene island - a place known for housing a dissolute Roman princess 2000 yrs ago and, today, for its spectacular dive sites (and great food).
Aldo has had an amazing luck this week - and showed the cool reaction of the veteran photographer when a manta ray (the Mediterranean equivalent, Mobula mobular, possibly-but-who-knows-really an endemic species) passed by during one of his dives. BTW, mobulas seem to be on the rise here in the Med - or at least I’m receiving increasing reports of friends, yachtsmen and divers… but that’s another story!
Anyway - Ventotene is becoming known also for being a hotspot for nursehound sharks mums, who seem to be laying their eggs everywhere on seafans, sponges and… old fishing lines. They seem to have started laying quite recently, as many of the pictures Aldo took are of shiny, polished new eggs.
What is quite interesting in this picture is the number of eggs, and the fact that some look quite old (notice the fouling) and some are instead very recent (the one on the bottom). This tiny old rope must be in an exeptionally good spot, combining nice courrent (to bring oxygen to the baby) and whatever else that makes a good creche for sharks.
Thanks Aldo, and to the scores of other divers who are reporting their findings. Keep diving, and keep reporting!

Diving in the Med? Let us know if you see a mermaid purse!

2012-06-18T15:10:50+00:00

Are you a dive master working in the Med? Or are you taking your diving holidays in this little-known diving paradise (it is, trust me)?

Then pls keep your eyes peeled and if you see a mermaid purse - those large, white eggs that nursehound sharks lay on red seafans - please let us know.

The nursehound - Scyliorhinus stellaris - is a species we don’t know much about - but we know that in many areas of the Med it has declined so much it almost vanished.
Scientists are trying to get more information; the IUCN is concerned that it may indeed qualify for the infamous “threatened” status. So any info we can get is very important.

And divers can provide a vital information: where they see the eggs - the special areas where this shark has its babies.

So - next time you see a mermaid purse, please fill in this form (in Italian) or send us an email at info [at] medsharks.org including where (dive site and area), at what depth, how many eggs and what they were attached to - and if you saw a nursehound shark in the dive too.

If you’re a photographer, take pictures - and if you dive regularly in the area, you might take pixes over the weeks - we could track together the growth of the baby shark.
But please always remember that inside the egg there’s a baby who’s delicate - so don’t touch or collect the ogg, OK?

thanks so much - and if you’re on Facebook, “like” our page!