Scuba Diver Ocean Planet Issue 04/2016 | Page 19

©Gill McDonald

Indonesia
© Flickr/Stephen Childs

Brown-banded bamboo shark, or cat shark
(Chiloscyllium punctatum)
It’s true! Along with the occasional passing whale
shark there are resident sharks in the macro haven
of the mysterious, black-sanded Lembeh Strait. The
brown-banded bamboo shark can be found down to
depths of 85 metres and can grow up to a metre long.
These sharks are nocturnal animals so you may
encounter one on a night dive. Incredibly, they can
survive out of the water for up to 12 hours. They
have barbels, which are sensory organs that look like
whiskers. Hence, their common name is cat shark.

Thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus)
Malapascua Island is in the Visayan Sea, seven
kilometres across a shallow strait from the
northernmost tip of Cebu Island. Every day, while
most tourists are still sleeping, divers head out at
dawn and as the sun rises they don masks and gear
and slide into the still, shadowy water.
Monad Shoal is the only place in the world where
you are guaranteed to see thresher sharks every day
of the year.
These sharks have distinctive, long tails and grow
to about five or six metres.

© Wikipedia Commons/Greg Skomal/NOAA Fisheries Service

© 123RF/ftlaudgirl

There are a wealth of dive locations from all over the world featured in this
jam-packed issue, and every single one has a shark population of one kind or another.
Not surprising when you consider there are over 400 recognised shark species.
Before you dive into the magazine, check out our checklist of sharks from some of
the featured destinations, and see how many you can tick off your must-see list:

Basking shark
(Cetorhinus maximus)
The basking shark is one of the few
species that has moved from being
commercially targeted, to becoming
a charismatic wildlife ambassador.
Once heavily targeted for their liver
oil, meat and fins, the last UK fishing
operation was in the mid-1990s.
Reaching 12 metres in length,
basking sharks are the largest fish in
the UK and the second-largest in the
world after the whale shark. SDOP