And just when you thought you will be safe on the beach…
On the contrary, scientists have given the assurance that the newly discovered “walking” shark specie is actually very harmless. The group was recently found living in a reef located in a remote island in eastern Indonesia. And because they are brownish black and white in color, they are christened “bamboo sharks”.

The Harmless Kind

Bamboo sharks appear to thrive among the tropical waters of Papua New Guinea, Australia and Indonesia. They are smaller compared to their other cousins, the longest only reaching a length of about 120 centimeters though the average span of a bamboo shark is only 80 centimeters. Their tails are remarkably long in comparison to their bodies and they possess black spot markings very common among walking or epaulette shark species (the dub ‘epaulette’ is due to the spots resembling military epaulettes closely). These creatures appear to “walk” by touching their pectoral and dorsal fins on the seabed and doing walk-like gaits.

A bamboo shark’s diet consists mainly of crustaceans and small fishes and it usually forages at night. These creatures lay eggs among the surrounding reefs and live sedentary throughout their lives never venturing far into the deep waters, preferably living in their homes in isolated reefs. The bamboo sharks discovery was detailed on a report published in the International Journal of Ichthyology.

Save the Sharks!

Concurrently, the discovery of the new shark specie was in line with Indonesia’s announcement about making a variety of initiatives directed at protecting sharks.  Agus Dermawan of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries disclosed that the organization is currently drafting policies safeguard sharks and stingrays from overhunting which might lead to the extinction of these sea creatures. Additionally, Raja Ampat and West Manggarai group of islands have already outlawed shark and sting ray hunting in their borders.

Dermawan also revealed the reason behind the government’s recent interest on sharks: it is due to the reason that living and breathing sharks generally bring in more money through tourism compared to the dead ones. “We now know, for instance, that a living manta ray is worth up to US $1.9 million to our economy over the course of its lifetime, compared to a value of only $40 to $200 for its meat and gill-rakers,” which are used in traditional medicines, Dermawan stated. Global organization Conservation International also cited tourism as the factor that will most likely benefit from these newly discovered species.

“It should help draw diver interest to this mega-diverse but largely undiscovered region,” its official statement said. Ketut Sarjana Putra, Indonesia country director for the group, have pointed out the fact that not all sharks are big; there are families out there that are very much like bamboo sharks – small and harmless – and the existence of these safe-to-human sharks should all the more make humankind’s voice for conservation louder and more aggressive. Recently, India, the world’s second shark fin supplier to China, had imposed stricter policies against shark finning. Hopefully, Indonesia will follow on that lead.