5 days ago
Rare discovery inside shark hooked off Australian coast: 'First of its kind'
A surprising discovery has been made inside the body of an apex predator hooked at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Using a microscope to examine the dead Australian sharpnose shark, researchers from CQUniversity identified a 'rare' parasitic worm, previously unknown to science, discovered inside its gills.
Lead researcher Dr David Vaughan explained the new species (loimos everinghami) is the "first of its kind" to be described in Oceania, a vast geographical area that includes Australia, New Zealand and numerous islands in the Pacific.
There are only six loimos species known in the world, and he'd been searching for evidence of them in the region for two decades. The last to be discovered was in Brazil in 1972.
'Finding this one was wonderful. I was beginning to wonder if they existed at all,' he said.
What do the parasitic worms eat?
Australian sharpnose sharks are not considered dangerous to humans and will generally only strike if provoked.
The shark with the worm in its gills was collected from Queensland's Capricorn Coast after it was discovered dead on a drumline, a shark control device used by the state government. It is not believed that the parasite was directly responsible for the shark's death.
Loimos everinghami needs the sharks to survive, and the species doesn't cause any harm to its host as long as numbers stay low. The worm lives in the gills for its adult life, feeding on skin and mucus.
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Vaughan said the discovery will create 'significant global interest' in the world of parasitic shark worm enthusiasts. But the discovery will have a wider impact on our understanding of shark health. Although Australian sharpnose sharks are abundant, globally shark and ray numbers have declined by 70 per cent since 1970, mostly due to overfishing.
'Sharks are apex predators on the reef, and so many food webs involve sharks. An understanding of these obligate relationships provides us with greater knowledge for conservation,' Vaughan said.
'The discovery of new species adds to our known biodiversity, which is our shared Australian heritage.'
The research has been published by Cambridge University Press in the Journal of Helminthology.
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