New shark species discovered in Taiwanese fish market

The new shark species, Squalus formosus, on display in a Taiwanese fish market - Photo credit William White.

September 2011. Dr. William White, of Australia's CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Institute, was working with a colleague from the US, Dr David Ebert, who had previously done some work at the Tashi fish market in the 1980s. After a conference in Taipei they decided to go to the fish market at Tashi for a week to collect some material and to see whether there were noticeable differences in the catches from previous visits. Amongst a number of other species, they collected a number of Squalus species - one of which was a previously unknown highfin species.

This species was well known and wasn't a rare find in the markets - but its taxonomy was not resolved. For many years it was called a different name - Squalus blainville which was not correct. Some Japanese books had referred to this as Squalus sp. We noticed it was closest to one that we had described off Australia (S. albifrons). A colleague from Paris (Samuel Iglesias - co-author) visited Tashi on a separate trip in following years and collected another specimen which he sent to Dr White in Hobart.

Dogshark
This species of dogshark belongs to a group of short nose species which have high fins. This species has a particularly upright 1st dorsal fin with a white leading edge and a very strong spine, as well as a very short and rounded head. These are the main characters which distinguish it from other species.

Distibution
Currently known only from Taiwan and Japan and unlikely to be found to much further afield given what we know of the narrow distribution ranges of Squalus species.

Conservation status
Currently not assessed for its conservation status - now the new species name is available it can now be formally assessed by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group. This highlights why it is extremely important to have the taxonomy resolved so that we can then understand the conservation status of a species.

This new species provides further evidence that a large number of species previously considered to be wider ranging are being shown to be species complexes consisting of several species with narrower distributions. It also highlights the mega diversity of the Indo-West Pacific region.

This discovery is one of many which occur regularly in the Indo-West Pacific (and indeed the world) and highlights the need for accurate taxonomy as a fundamental requirement for life sciences.