New walking shark

species found off Halmahera

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Headlines | Mon, September 02 2013, 9:43 AM

Walking shark: Hemiscyllium, the walking shark, is seen here in waters near Halmahera. Courtesy of CI/Mark V. Erdmann
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A new species of walking shark has been found in the waters off Halmahera Island, North
Maluku, an environmental group confirmed on Sunday.

The shark, Hemiscyllium halmahera, used its four fins to wriggle across the seabed and
forage for small fish and crustaceans, rather than swimming in the ocean, scientists from
Conservation International (CI) said on Sunday.

This shark is harmless and it does not swim but walks like a gecko. It doesnt have typical
shark teeth, either; it has teeth to crush small shelled animals, said Mark Erdmann, a senior
adviser to CIs marine program.

Erdmann said that because of its inability to swim swiftly through the sea, the shark only ate
small animals on the seabed, such as crabs, shrimps, molluscs and small fish.

The shark only swims if it feels threatened by a predator.

The new species is not the first walking shark found in Indonesian waters.

Walking sharks have also been found in Kaimana and Cendrawasih, West Papua, in the past
decade, but I can tell that this one is much smaller, Erdmann told The Jakarta Post.

He said the new species found in Halmahera was smaller at only 83 centimeters in length and
1.5 kilograms in weight, while its cousins in Kaimana could grow to 100 cm.

The shark, which has a distinctive mottled brown and white color, was first photographed by
British diver Graham Abbott during a vacation to Halmahera in 2007.

Abbott then sent the photo to CI to verify if the species was similar to the one in West Papua.

CI then conducted a survey in conjunction with local government, the Indonesian Institute of
Sciences (LIPI), Khairun University, the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA)
and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in 2008, when another walking shark was photographed
in the same waters.

After conducting research on the two specimens of the Halmahera walking sharks, CI
officially announced that the Halmahera walking shark was a new species in the Journal of
Ichtyology in July.

A researcher from LIPIs Oceanography Research Center, Fahmi, who is currently studying
walking sharks, said the finding highlighted the diversity of eastern Indonesias marine
biodiversity.

He said that the walking shark found in Halmahera was the third species of walking shark
found in eastern Indonesia in the last six years.

Fahmi added that there were only nine species of walking shark in the world, six of which
lived in Indonesian waters, while another three species were scattered in the oceans
surrounding Papua New Guinea (PNG) and northern Australia.

He said, as quoted by kompas.com, that the first ever walking shark, known as Hemiscyllium
ocellatum, was found in Australia in the 1800s, while the first species of walking shark in
Indonesia was found in Kaimana and Cendrawasih in 2008.

Mark said the interesting finding from his research into walking sharks was that they were
similarly distributed across the region to Cendrawasih birds. He said that the birds were
readily found in Papua and PNG, and some could also be found in North Maluku and
Australia.

Mark estimated that there were currently around 10,000 walking sharks of all species in
Indonesian waters, while there were 50,000 to 100,000 in Northern Australia. (koi)
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/09/02/new-walking-shark-species-found-
halmahera.html
Reading Comprehension :
1. What did a Group Environment confirm?
2.