Our most interesting response was from Adelaide shark ecologist Charlie Huveneer who sent us this request and asked us to pass it on to all of you (the bold print is ours):
Dear Diver,
I am a shark ecologist from Adelaide, South Australia who have been working on wobbegongs for the last 7 years. During this time, scientists from CSIRO (John Pogonoski and Peter Last), WA fisheries (Justin Chidlow) and myself have redescribed or described over 5 new species, including 4 in Western Australia. Recent work has also identified another potential new species of wobbegong found from Shark Bay to Broome/Ashmore Reef .
Unfortunately, we are finding it difficult to finalise the descriptions because of the small number of specimens available and the external similarities between these sharks. I was hoping that some of your divers might have taken photographs of any wobbegong species found in your area which might help us getting a better understanding of the speices occuring in Northern Western Australia. So that you know which species I’m talking about, I’ve attached a photo of the specimens we have. As you can see, some specimens look similar, while others look different. There is potential for all these sharks to be 1/2 species or maybe 4 different species.
Any photos/additional specimen would be greatly helpful!
In the hope that you will be able to provide some help,
Kindest regards,
Charlie
So if any of you have photos of wobbies, especially ones that seem to have fewer decorations around their mouths than our usual Tasseled Wobbegongs, please forward your images and information to Charlie (whose email address is on the photos above) or to us and we will be happy to forward them for you.
Please pass the link to this blog post on to your friends who may have dived here, too!
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