Baby ray grown in sandwich bag at Aberdeenshire aquarium Published duration 20 January 2019

image copyright Michael Traill image caption Frazer Mackay may have saved the young thornback ray

A young thornback ray has been saved at Macduff Marine Aquarium in Aberdeenshire - after being allowed to grow in a sandwich bag.

The ray was trapped in its egg case - known as a mermaid's purse - and would have died.

Aquarium employee Frazer Mackay peeled open the case and put the ray, still at the embryo stage, in the bag.

The ray is now a month old and the aquarium said it is "thriving" in the sandwich bag in a quarantine tank.

Mr Mackay said: "This one's been quite lucky. I actually found it while I was clearing out the tank.

"All the others had hatched and I was removing the empty egg cases.

"I picked up this one and I gave it a bit of a squish to get all the air out, and it didn't squish so I peeled it open and saw there was still a baby ray inside it. The purse was closed so I assumed it was empty."

He added: "I peeled it out from the egg case and passed it into the poly pocket and it started wriggling and doing its thing - and it was actually alive which was big sigh of relief."