Holiday Brochures | Contact us

Browse Old Articles

Safari of the week

CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL DETAILS OR TO BOOK.

100 new shark and ray species recognised from Australian waters

21/09/2008 15:07:45

The Maugean Skate , a new species from Bathurst and Macquarie Harbours in Tasmania. Llisted as Endangered.

Sharks and Rays of Australia
More than 90 of the new species were identified but undescribed in the 1994 book; Sharks and Rays of Australia, by Dr Last and CSIRO's Dr John Stevens. The new names and descriptions will feature in a revised edition of the book in 2009.

Australian biologists have finished an extraordinary 18-month long project which has described more than 100 new species of sharks and rays.

September 2008. Scientists sponsored by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have named a third of Australia's, and about 10% of the world's, shark and ray species.

Team leader, CSIRO's Dr Peter Last, says analysis of DNA sequences was used to clarify the identity of closely related species.

Slow reproduction
"Additional taxonomic information like this is critical to managing sharks and rays, which reproduce relatively slowly and are extremely vulnerable to over-fishing and other human impacts," he says. "Their populations are also sensitive to small-scale events and can be an indicator of environmental change."

The new species include:

• The endemic, Northern Freshwater Whipray and the Northern River Shark, which can grow to over two metres in length, and are among the largest freshwater animals in Australia. Until recently these were confused with similar marine species.
• The Endangered Maugean Skate which has an extremely narrow distribution. It is closely related Gondwanan ancestor which lived off southern Australia some 80 million years ago, and the present day species clings to life at the south-western tip of Tasmania.
• A Critically Endangered gulper shark, the Southern Dogfish, which is endemic to the continental slope off southern Australia. It has suffered severe population declines in the past few decades.

Apex predators
CSIRO's Dr William White says sharks and rays also play a vital ecosystem role as apex predators. "Take them away and what does it mean for the rest of the ecosystem?" Dr White says. "We can't understand possible implications unless we know what species we're dealing with. Their populations are also sensitive to small-scale events and can be an indicator of environmental change."

Specimens of many of the new species are in the Australian National Fish Collection at CSIRO Hobart - the largest collection of preserved sharks and rays in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Southern Dogfish Centrophorus zeehaani, a new species of gulper shark endemic to southern Australia.

Read the comments about this article and leave your own comment

To post a comment you must be logged in.
CLICK HERE TO LOG IN AND POST A COMMENT

New user? Register here

Name:
Email:

Click join and we will email you with your password. You can then sign on and join the discussions right away.

Created by Wild Dog Design & Bright Interactive