Tomerong photographer snaps world-first shark photo

A Shoalhaven photographer has recorded the world’s first known image of an oceanic shark giving birth.

Attila Kaszo from Tomerong shot the remarkable image while photographing pelagic thresher sharks in the Philippines in late 2013. 

Mr Kaszo unknowingly shot the image during an early morning dive about 30 metres under water where the sharks visit shallow seamounts for cleansing purposes.  

“I was there every morning for about three weeks, essentially waiting for sharks to come out of the gloom,” he said.

The deep sea pelagic thresher sharks have been known to come up to cleaning stations where wrasse fish would clean any parasites and wounds in a mutually beneficial relationship. 

“I saw this shark come into the cleaning station and shot it like I shot every other shark that day,” Mr Kaszo said. 

“I probably shot about 2500 images that day so I didn’t review them while shooting, I waited until I got home and went through them,” he said.

However it wasn’t an image that sparked Mr Kaszo’s interest at first, putting most of the pictures in a trash folder on his computer before reviewing them a final time. 

“I reviewed the photos once before ditching them and that’s when I came across it.” 

What he first thought was a jellyfish in the line of the shark was in fact the birth of an elusive and vulnerable pelagic thresher shark. 

“I blew the image up and looked at it over and over, I enhanced it and then knew it definitely wasn’t a jellyfish or a wrasse,” he said.

Kaszo then emailed the image to the world research team based in Liverpool, England, who had been studying these sharks for about seven years. 

Dr Simon Oliver confirmed that the image was, in fact, the first known record of a pelagic thresher shark birth and expressed his interest in teaming up with Mr Kaszo. 

“Because these sharks are very uncommon and there are a lot of unknowns about them, the image basically made about three years of their research void,” said Kaszo. 

“They said that if I kept the image under wraps for the next 12 months that after they completed their study and research they would publish my image in a science journal,” he said.

The team’s research was finally authenticated, peer reviewed and released in the international scientific journal Coral Reefs. 

The story has since been picked up by BBC, Fox News and Discovery Canada, all publicising Mr Kaszo’s rare feat. 

“I still can’t believe I did it… it really hasn’t resonated yet,” he said. 

“I take thousands of pictures and have been doing this for 40 years but you never expect to do this sort of thing.”  

Despite receiving enormous recognition for his achievement, Mr Kaszo remains focused on why he does what he does. 

“Essentially, I’m a staunch conservationist and I will do anything to help expand the knowledge base on sharks and wildlife in general.

“Helping to protect and preserve sharks weighs well beyond anything you could pay me. Other than to cover my costs, I’m not in it for the money, I’m purely and simply in it for conservation and preservation.” 

The image is likely to further develop and rapidly increase knowledge of pelagic thresher sharks, ensuring scientists around the world can re-evaluate their hypotheses on the species. 

“Leading scientists to different paths of inquiry and research, that to me is the absolute pinnacle of an achievement,” Mr Kaszo said. 

He will head back to the Philippines in June where he will be putting together a story for National Geographic on pelagic thresher sharks. 

Mr Kaszo said he has taken thousands of images of this particular species of shark but nothing can compare to the image that is attracting so much attention. 

“Technically, I don’t think it’s the best image I’ve ever taken but it just captures a unique moment, which is what you want to try and do with wildlife photography,” he said. 

“It’s just what it is and that’s the important part about it.”