have a curious ability to ‘walk’ using their fins which enables them to move across very shallow areas such as reef flats at low tide. “If you talk to anyone in Milne Bay they call them the lazy sharks because they don’t move very far,” self- confessed shark nerd Jess says with a laugh. “They move maybe 200 metres to a couple of kilometres in their lifetime, which is not far compared to whale sharks and other
species which will come from Queensland up to PNG and the Solomons and do those kinds of loops quite regularly.” The three species of walking sharks (also called epaulette, carpet and bamboo sharks) that are unique to PNG are the ones that Jess is focusing her PhD research on as these have been the least studied. All are listed as vulnerable to extinction on the International Union for Conservation
PNG’s 3 Walking Sharks Michael’s walking shark , found around the Milne Bay area; Papuan walking shark , found in the Gulf of Papua, from Port Moresby and Central Province down to the Torres Strait; Hooded walking shark , a much darker coloured shark with white spots found in waters from Madang right along the northern coast of PNG through to Jayapura in West Papua.
of Nature’s Red List, with one of the biggest threats being
a warming ocean that is currently creating one of the worst coral
WHAT CAN YOU DO? TAKE A PHOTO The future of PNG’s unique walking sharks is far from secure with all three locally-found species listed as vulnerable to extinction by global
Make sure you note the location, date, depth and time of your encounter, and you can even check if the shark is male or female as only the males have a pair of claspers (external finger- shaped sex organs).
conservation authorities. Efforts are under way to photograph as many individuals as possible to build a photo identification database and map of where populations live that will be used for ongoing monitoring and protection plans. You can help by taking photos of any walking sharks you see and posting them on social media with the hashtags #PNGwalkingshark and #thewalkingsharkproject.
Field assistant and University of PNG student Julie Anne Waranaka catches a Michael’s walking shark during a survey trip to Tufi
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