Sunday, August 25, 2013

Baby Sharks in Jars

I'm just asking - do you, by any chance, have a need to possess a baby shark in a jar of blue fluid? (Which reminds me of those communal public combs in the jars of blue fluid at upscale golf course resort restrooms - a puzzling practice from another era that still seems to persist against all odds today.)

Anyway, if your answer was affirmative, let me just direct you to any of the numerous "Florida Citrus Centers" that dot every exit on I-75 in South Georgia and North Florida. They have more baby sharks in jars of blue fluid than you probably need for your purposes (depending on your purposes) but I suspect if you wanted to buy in bulk, they'd be happy to cut you a deal because they seem to have cornered the market on this niche need.

Most Florida Citrus Centers have their baby jars arranged around what is purported to be a large specimen of taxidermied shark, but actually looks suspiciously like a fake fiberglass one with real shark teeth applied to it. (And if you'll permit me another off-topic aside, I just googled and discovered that sure enough, there's indeed no shortage of companies eager to sell fake taxidermy trophies for the armchair fisherman.)

So where do they get all these baby sharks in the first place, anyway? According to this site, these baby sharks are found inside a larger mama shark, caught for food by commercial fishermen. It also notes, incidentally, to be very careful with your prize, because the blue fluid is highly flammable (70 percent isopropyl alcohol.)

3 comments:

  1. Pregnant female sharks are known to push there embryonic babies out of there bodies therefore those babies were dead from the start

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