This topic was a question of some controversy for some time. Some scientists speculated that whale sharks were egg laying sharks, while others speculated that they gave birth to live young. In 1953 a shark egg case containing a 37cm whale shark (about 15 inches) was found in a trawl net in the Gulf of Mexico. This started the controversy as the egg could have resulted from a premature birth. The problem was finally resolved in 1995 when a team of scientists from National Taiwan Ocean University examined a 11m (36ft) pregnant whale shark that had been harpooned by a fisherman. Her twin uteruses contained 300 embryos ranging in size from 40cm to 63cm, proving that the embryos emerge from their egg cases while still inside the mothers body and the mother gives birth to live young.