Walking shark, new species of shark which is an endemic species of North Maluku

News24xx.com - Sharks are identical as large wild animals that live in seas. But this is not the case with 'walking shark' which found in Ternate, North Maluku. Hemiscullium Halmahera or gorangohaga fish - the general term of Ternate community for all types of sharks in North Maluku that have different appearance than sharks in general.

The walking shark have length of 68 cm to 1.22 meters with brown color and black spots on its skin that make it into the category of bamboo sharks.

During this time local residents thought there was nothing special about walking sharks. Hardwork of Australian biological, Gerard Allen makes the walking shark get scientific recognition.

Allen's first met the walking shark when he dived in the waters of Falajawa, Central Ternate in 2008 ago. Five years later, he and his colleagues have just managed to claim the walking shark as a new species.

The brown base color with a number of dark polygon-shaped spots makes the shark at a glance resembling Hemiscylliumgalei from West Papua. The difference is in its spots pattern that has seven large dark spots on the sides of its body.

Hemiscyllium Halmahera has the form of pectoral, pelvic and back fins to 'walk' when searching for food in the form of small fish and invertebrates. This body shape helps adult walking sharks lay eggs on coral ledges.

"Because of limited knowledge, we don't even know that walking sharks is an endemic animal of North Maluku" said the lecturer in Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences at Khairun University, Nurkhalis Wahidin to CNNIndonesia.com.

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