Making lemonade

So the second of the new sharks comes to you in extreme close up:

Looks impressive like that doesn't she. Well she's only a baby and is actually about 2 feet long. This little female lemon shark was one of a number of sharks of 2 possibly 3 species that interrupted my fishing in a mangrove lagoon recently. Unlike juvenile blacktip reef sharks which like beautiful clear water on sheltered sandflats, these lemons like somewhat less clean water hence the murk. How murky you ask? Well, the picture above was taken at less than 6 inches range in slightly less than wild conditions.

By "slightly less than wild" what I mean is I was taking the picture with one hand and holding the shark with the other having just unhooked and released her after she snuck in and grabbed my bait (does this little girl look like an 80lb tarpon to you?). Oh well - when life gives you lemons - make lemonade.

Here's a full body shot I took pre-release that illustrates the characteristics of a lemon. The give away is the huge second dorsal which acts as a second tail to generate speed quickly. Note also the snub nose. Just in case anyone is wondering she was released in fine health which she illustrated by turning around and coming straight back to try and eat my next bit of bait. I'll show you the second species of shark from this lagoon soon.