Captive Shark Ray 'Sweet Pea' Gives Birth to Seven Pups [UPDATE] [VIDEO]

The Newport aquarium is buzzing with baby news.  The latest additions to the zoo are the seven pups born to  shark ray Sweet Pea, Wednesday.

Earlier this month, the aquarium had announced that its captive shark ray was expecting. On Wednesday, the aquarium happily announced that Sweet Peas was now a mother to seven pups. This makes mommy Sweet Pea the first shark ray to breed in a controlled environment.

A mother of three male and three female shark ray pups, Sweet Pea gave birth to the first pup at 12.25 a.m. ET. Unfortunately the fourth female pup did not survive. The arrival of these sharks increases the count of rays in the aquarium to 10.

Currently, Sweet Pea is kept at on offsite facility in Northern Kentucky and is monitored through three high definition surveillance cameras that were installed in the facility earlier. This technology allowed the husbandry staff to remotely watch Sweet Pea's progress.

Immediately after the birth, each pup underwent a medical examination and all were shifted into a separate tank placed adjacent to their mother's tank. The weight of the small ray pups varied from 2.1 - 2.4 pounds while their length ranged from 1 foot 7.3 inches to 1 foot 6.4 inches.

The Newport staff succeeded in making a record through the revolutionary Shark Ray Breeding Program (SRBP) that was established in the year 2007 with the introduction of Scooter-a rare male shark ray. Later the aquarium introduced Sunshine (2009) and Spike (2013).

The mother and the new bunch of unnamed shark rays will go on exhibit on separate dates. This comes as good news for the shark ray population that was listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

"It's cool that Sweet Pea gave birth the same week as the IUCN reports," said Animal Health Specialist Jolene Hanna, who has been studying hormones in the shark rays since the inception of the SRBP. "It shows the world that Newport Aquarium can successfully breed shark rays and help this species."

At the moment the husbandry staff is challenged with how to get the pups to eat and also monitor the communication among them. The tank they are kept in is filled with some live crabs for the newbies to feast on.

"We'll be providing them with a smorgasbord of live food items that they might encounter in the wild," said Jen Hazeres, who along with fellow aquatic biologist Scott Brehob, works closely with the SRBP.

The rare and distinctive fish shark ray (Rhina anclyostoma) also called the Bowmouth guitarfish, is native to the Indo-Pacific region and mostly feeds on crabs and shellfish. They are found near coasts and offshore reefs in the tropical waters. Not much is known about these species.