FIVE rare smoothound sharks have been born at Weymouth Sea Life Park.

The hungry youngsters are the first of their kind to be born in captivity for years.

Marine expert Andy Lister said: "Unlike our most common shark species - nursehounds and bull huss, which lay eggs - smoothound babies emerge from their mother's womb free-swimming and ready to fend for themselves.

"While Sea Life centres hatch out sharks of the egg-laying variety on almost a daily basis, smoothound births are extremely rare in captivity."

The youngsters were so fit and healthy that two have already been dispatched to star in a brand-new Sea Life centre in Oberhausen in Germany. The other three are happily swimming around their own quarantine tank being fussed over by staff.

Andy said: "A smoothound litter can be anything up to 20 babies and usually each would only be about 15cms long.

"These were much bigger - nearly a foot long - because there were only five of them in the litter.

"They're already feeding hungrily on prawns, shrimps and diced ragworm twice a day."

The pair at Oberhausen have been settled into a nursery display where they are proving a huge hit with visitors.

The remaining trio at Weymouth will stay behind the scenes until they are big enough to be moved into a larger public display tank at the park, probably some time in spring 2005.