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A local Kaiapoi photographer on a photoshoot at Pines Beach on Saturday night witnessed a shark being reeled in by fishermen, while the shark appears to be aborting her babies.

Kirsten Smart told Chris Lynch Media, “There were little sharks everywhere, and there was quite a big one as well, and they were quite close to shore. I didn’t realise sharks came that close.”

A woman at Smart’s photoshoot captured the moment on her phone’s camera when one fisherman pulled the shark onto shore, and a second clip shows another fisher dragging the shark back into the sea.

Upon viewing the videos, shark scientist Dr Riley Elliott from Auckland University identified the catch as a female blue shark.

Elliott said she “…was clearly pregnant and almost full term. What can happen when captured is they can abort the pups or have them prematurely which is seemingly the case here.”

“The pups look relatively full-term and thus they could possibly survive. It was good to see the fishermen put the blue shark back and I would assume the pups too,” Elliott said.

While on a boat shooting a shark film near Stewart Island, Elliott told this newsroom that blue sharks can have up to 135 pups.

“Blue sharks are, however, the most killed shark on earth through bycatch in tuna longline fleets. In New Zealand we banned shark finning in 2014 however without cameras on boats or adequate observer coverage on the offshore vessels, there is likely massive mortality occurring in blue sharks and many other bycatch species in order for fishers to retrieve their hooks rather than cutting bycatch free,” he said.

Smart said another woman from her photoshoot tried to move the baby sharks that came onto shore back into the water to be with their mum, but it kept coming back onto the sand.

Smart said there were a couple of surfers in the water at the time.