The author was fortunate enough to come across a pair of mating Raja epaulette
sharks on a night dive.
The epaulette sharks gained world-wide fame in 2006 when they were described as “walking sharks” by a group of ichthyologists sea rching for new species in West Papua (Irian Jaya). The media picked up on these “new walking sharks” not realizing these sharks had been familiar to those that are shark-inclined for centuries! That said, their habit of “walking” is especially interesting. They crawl along the sea floor on their muscular pectoral and pelvic fins, preferring this form of locomotion to swimming (they will swim if they are trying to cover a greater distance more rapidly). Not only do their specialized fins make them ideally adapted to a benthic lifestyle, their serpentine-like body type means they are better-suited for crawling and slinking between and within reef fissures, coral branches and the limited confines of the home aquarium.
