Visitors to our Dive Center many think a shark is
just a shark. Gray or white, and something to be feared in the water. Now
granted, sharks have been known to attack humans. So, a fear of them is
generally justified. However, here’s what you should understand: there
are more to sharks than meets the eye and what you have heard. In fact, there
are all kinds of sharks including but not limited to:
- White
Tip
- Black
Tip
- Gray
Reef
- Brown
Banded and Tawny Nurse
A Look At Each Shark Species
White Tip Reef Sharks
These sharks, which are extremely slim, get their name for two reasons:
they have a white tip on their caudal fin and dorsal and are seen living near
the reef. During the daytime, they hide themselves in crevices. The
really young can rest under the table corals. They breathe using the buccal
pumping method, meaning water is actively being pumped over the gills. Of
course, the white tip reef sharks can also be seen swimming along the reef
slope.
Black Tip Reef Sharks
This sharks a little different from the white tip reef sharks in that
they’re much stockier. They are generally seen along the ocean’s sandy bottoms
and reef slopes. In order to get a glimpse of these sharks, people must keep a
watchful eye, as they blend in fairly well with their surroundings. The
little baby black tip sharks are often seen in shallow water, near the beach.
In order to protect themselves, they stick to mangroves. These sharks are
identified by their black tips on both the caudal fin and dorsal, have a light
gray color to them and get reach up to two meters long.
Gray Reef Sharks
These sharks are generally seen less frequently, as they tend to stay in
the deeper slopes of the ocean. These fat sharks, which have black edges on
their pectoral fins and caudal fins, usually travel much farther than the black
and white tip reef sharks.
Tawny Nurse and Brown Banded Sharks
These sharks reside at the bottom. They’ve got tails that provide them with
stability, more so than the other types of sharks. One common shark seen around
Karang Makassar is the bamboo shark, which can measure up to 1.18 meters long.
The Tawny nurse shark can grow to more than three meters.
Sharks feed on various bony fish, crustaceans and cephalopods such as
parrotfish, snappers, lobsters, shrimp and squids. Many of the sharks
seen are on the IUCN Red List for Vulnerable or Near Threatened, mainly geared
toward the Shark Fin Soup, which is offered in China.
When it comes to the ecosystem, sharks play an important part. If an
excessive number of sharks are removed, it means there’s a plethora of fish
that’ll eat the plankton. And, when there’s not enough plankton, then there’s
not enough oxygen being generated. Most people don’t realize that 80
percent of the oxygen people are breathing in is generated from the ocean.
Sharks are a key part of the ocean’s ecosystem and certainly the highlight
of anyone’s visit to our Komodo Dive Center. We offer daily trips,
liveaboards, courses and so much more.
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