Australians stumble across new shark species in ‘world first’ catch
Updated . First published at
An Australian woman has described the moment she first spotted what has now been confirmed as an entirely new species of shark during a night dive off the coast of Papua New Guinea.
“Straight away I recognised that the colour pattern was different from any of the other species I had worked with before,” the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Jess Blakeway said.
Jess Blakeway and her team discovered an entirely new species of shark in waters off Papua New Guinea. Nesha Ichida/University of the Sunshine Coast
“The first thing that stood out was the white dashes along its brown body. These dashes were quite different to the leopard-like spots we were expecting.”
Blakeway was part of an Australian-led research team doing a night dive in Milne Bay in south-eastern Papua New Guinea aimed at examining an endangered species of “walking sharks” which inhabited the bay.
Instead, what the team found was a species previously unknown to science.
Walking sharks eat invertebrates off the sea floor and are not dangerous to humans, but are famous for using all four fins as limbs to amble across reef flats at low tide.
Blakeway first spotted the unique specimen in the boat’s lights as it was brought in by shark geneticist and ecologist Dr Christine Dudgeon.
Dudgeon then caught the species by hand and coaxed it back to the study boat, where blood and tissue samples were taken for testing.
When the samples were genetically analysed in Australia, the team’s suspicions were confirmed: it was a new species.
“It’s exciting because this is the first new species described for the genus since 2013,” said Blakeway.
The shark was discovered in shallow waters around Watota, Milne Bay, in Papua New Guinea. Mark Erdmann/University of the Sunshine Coast
(L-R) Jess Blakeway, Mark Erdmann and Dr Christine Dudgeon with the newly discovered shark, now named the Dudgeon's walking shark. Nesha Ichida/University of the Sunshine Coast
In an international research paper released overnight, the metre-long creature has been officially named the Dudgeon’s walking shark, after the group’s lead researcher.
“New shark species don’t come along that often, and it’s most definitely the first one named after me,” Dudgeon said of the discovery.
The species is nocturnal and so far, has been found only in a tiny area off south-eastern Papua New Guinea.
During the group’s night dive, the University of the Sunshine Coast team spotted another 11 individuals with the same patterning.
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