The New Species  of  a rare fish is finally protected

• The name of the walking shark is still relatively unknown to the public when mentioning the names of fish or marine biota in the country. Even though the status of this species is already vulnerable and endangered because of its uniqueness.

• Of the nine types of walking sharks in the world's oceans, as many as six species are known to exist in Indonesian waters. East Indonesian waters are a habitat for fish whose movements are quite slow because they move like walking and not swimming.

• All provinces in Eastern Indonesia are habitats for walking sharks, such as the waters of Papua, West Papua, Maluku and North Maluku. However, the threat of vulnerability continues to increase, because there is utilization for the world's ornamental fish supply needs

• The protection of a very valuable marine species, the walking shark ( Hemiscyllium spp . ), has finally been fully implemented by the Government of Indonesia. This effort was made because the population of this species continues to be threatened from time to time.

The determination of this status is expected to be able to maintain and guarantee the existence, availability, and continuity of these species. Considering, in recent years, walking sharks have continued to experience a decline in population.

As a result of this decline, in 2020 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) will not even hesitate to include all walking shark species in the red group. That means, walking sharks have been assessed as experiencing vulnerability and scarcity.

Director General of Marine Spatial Management of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (PRL KKP) Victor Gustaaf Manoppo explained that full protection for walking sharks was established through the Decree of the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Number 30 of 2023 concerning Full Protection for Walking Sharks.

This decree was signed directly by the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Sakti Wahyu Trenggono at the end of January 2023. Thus, it is hoped that the population decline will be stopped and management carried out better.

"The walking shark is one of the 20 priority fish species for KKP conservation in 2020-2024," he explained this week in Jakarta.

According to him, the decline in population, the threat of vulnerability, and the scarcity of walking shark species that has been happening so far has become a consideration for the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries to make policies for managing fish resources (SDI) even better.

Currently, the walking shark of the genus Hemiscyllium is an endemic species throughout the world, because it is only found in the waters of Papua, West Papua, Maluku, North Maluku, Papua New Guinea and Australia. They inhabit tropical marine water habitats.

He said, out of a total of nine species of walking sharks that exist throughout the world's oceans, as many as six species of which are known to exist only in Indonesian waters. That is why, full protection is a mandatory policy to be implemented in Indonesia.

Victor added, since the IUCN designated this fish as a red group in 2020, more and more people are concerned about walking sharks. Of the six species in Indonesia, two species are included in the near threatened group .

"Three species are categorized as vulnerable , and one species has the least concern category ," he explained.

The cause of the continuing decline in the world's walking shark population is that these fish tend to experience pressure that comes from anthropogenic factors or human intervention. Then, also because walking sharks have slow movements and are not dangerous, they are easy for fishermen to catch.

Even though it is not a target for fishing for consumption, the threat of extinction of walking sharks in Indonesia can occur at any time, due to uncontrolled use for certain purposes.

Meanwhile, the use of walking sharks in Indonesia is mostly done to meet the needs of the ornamental fish market. This need is also predicted to continue for a long time because walking sharks have unique morphology and characters.

Therefore, the walking shark actually has great potential to support the marine tourism sector, as part of a diving tourism destination. While in the sea, divers will be interested in observing the uniqueness of walking sharks.

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Unique Genetics

Director of Conservation and Marine Biodiversity of the KKP Firdaus Agung added, the general biology of walking sharks tends to live sedentary on the bottom of shallow waters, and is not actively moving and living in specific habitats such as coral reefs and seagrass beds.

This condition causes no mixing of populations between members of each species in the region. This causes a natural speciation process to follow the movement of tectonic plates with hydrological processes since tens of millions of years ago.

Firdaus said that each type of fish from the genus Hemiscyllium has genetic characteristics which are shown morphologically through different patterns and color patterns. The genetic diversity of each walking shark species is unique and must be maintained in order to maintain its purity.

"After the establishment of the shark protection status, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries will socialize its protection status to the public and develop a national action plan for its conservation," he said.

In 2020, Researcher from the University of Queensland, Australia Christine Dudgeon once stated that the walking shark found by the research team was the last shark species to evolve. To be exact, it happened nine million years ago.

The walking shark is thus the youngest shark species to evolve, since most sharks last evolved around 200 million years ago. Findings about the estimated evolutionary time of walking sharks were obtained through a molecular phylogeny approach.

Meanwhile, Associate Researcher at the Oceanographic Research Center of the National Research and Innovation Agency (PRO BRIN) Fahmi said that the task of protecting walking sharks is not enough with full protection status through Kepmen KP 30/2023 alone.

“There are still a number of important notes that must be made to ensure the protection of this walking shark. Among them is that there must be further studies related to the distribution map," said the man who is also the Regional Vice Chair for Asia from the IUCN Shark Specialist Group .

According to him, studying distribution maps is important because it is to find out the clear distribution boundaries of each walking shark species. In addition, so that areas that need to be monitored for the protection of walking sharks and their habitat can be mapped.

Regarding the naming of walking sharks, Fahmi explained that it was because the movement of this species in the water seemed to be walking, and not swimming like other types of fish in general. This movement arises because there is a biological nature that tends to settle on the bottom of the water, and uses its pectoral fin muscles (pectoral) to carry out this movement.

In terms of size, sharks enter the group of small fish with a total length ( total length / TL) below 100 centimeters (cm). In addition, these fish also have a small population, so they are vulnerable to extinction.

Separately, Vice President of Conservation International Asia Pacific Mark Erdmann said that walking sharks have a very limited distribution potential and they do not swim across deep water in the ocean.

However, walking sharks experience rapid reproduction rates and population growth, despite their relatively small bodies of less than one meter. These fish also experience relatively low fisheries exploitation pressure, but are limited in the distribution of movement.

"As a result, their population size is small and vulnerable to extinction because they cannot "run away" if there is habitat degradation and climate change," he concluded.