Hammerhead shark stuns fisherman by giving birth to a litter of pups as it is hauled onto packed Florida beach



Crowd of onlookers gathered at Panama City Beach, Florida

Fisherman hauled five foot hammerhead from water towards shore

Bystanders spotted tiny shark pups wriggling in the water



Beachgoers were left astonished after a hammerhead shark gave birth to a litter of pups before their eyes at the water's edge.

A crowd had gathered on the beach in Florida after a fisherman hauled the five foot shark from the water and dragged it towards the sand.

As the creature thrashed around in the shallow water, onlookers spotted the tiny hammerhead pups wriggling in the sea.

Pups: A tiny hammerhead shark pup can be seen in the water next to its mother on the Florida beach

The bizarre scene at Panama City Beach was caught on camera in the U.S. yesterday.

Despite repeated attempts to guide the hammerhead back into deeper water, she kept swimming towards the shore.

Local resident Kathy Hunt, who was watching on the beach, told local station News 13 that the shark seemed to be 'looking for a way out and was thrashing around the closer it got to the shoreline'.



Park rangers arrived at the beach to take control of the situation.

They tried to coax the shark back into deeper waters, but the shark died around 3pm yesterday.

Shark pups are very independent and often swim away from their mothers as soon as they are born, as these pups did in Florida.



Pups do not receive any further nourishment or support from their parents after birth and fend for themselves in shallow waters, where they have fewer predators than the open sea.



Female hammerheads usually give birth to 20-40 live pups, which are about 70cm long as pups.

In Florida, hammerhead sightings have increased in the past two years and it is now not uncommon to see them following fishing boats in an attempt to eat some of their trawls.



Like the shark that gave birth in Florida, hammerhead species generally inhabit shallow reefs in tropical seas worldwide and can even be found in water shallower than one metre.

Most hammerhead species are small and are considered harmless to humans.



Efficient at hunting thanks to their unusual head shape and breadth of vision, they feed on fish, squid, and crustaceans.



They do not actively seek out human prey, but are known to attack when provoked.



Catch: The fisherman abandoned his rod and grasped the five-foot-long shark with his hand to haul it towards the sand

Spectacle: A crowd of onlookers had gathered on the beach as a fisherman hauled the hammerhead shark towards the shore

Pups: As the shark writhed on the sand onlookers spotted the litter of tiny pups

'Stunned': It is possible the shock of being pulled from the water prompted the shark to give birth

Thrashing: Onlookers said the fisherman tried to guide the shark back to deeper water but that it kept swimming towards the shore



