  By: Christina Andrea Alvear
Meet the Walking Shark! If Nancy Sinatra could sing to this winning shark, she’d sing: These fins were made for walkin’ And that’s just what they’ll do One of these days, these fins are gonna walk all over you! Can a shark walk in shallow reef flats? The Epaulette shark can! When this shark experiences temperature fluctuations and low oxygen levels, it just uses its paddlel-ike pectoral fins to crawl to the next area. This walking pattern has been described as a salamander-like walking gait. The shark has a slender eel body type that allows it to hide in nooks and crannies of coral beds. This shark has a creamy brown color speckled with spots and a characteristic pair of black false eyespots ringed in white above its pectoral fins. Contrary to other deep sea shark predators, this shark’s rounded snout, nasal barbells, and bulging cat-like eyes make it look like a grumpy cat you’d want to cuddle! They frequently come in contact with humans and can be kept in a large aquarium, but are best appreciated at a distance in their natural habitat. These sharks usually do not exceed 3 ft and live for 20-25 years. The Story Behind the Name Epaulette An epaulette is an ornamental shoulder piece used in the military to show a soldier’s rank. Image source: Epaulette by Pearson Scott Foresman, public domain via Wikimedia commons The epaulette shark was named after its false eye spots that rest off the edge of the pectoral fins. These spots are black with a white border and are thought to resemble epaulettes on a military shoulder. Besides its main name, the epaulette shark has other aliases: blind shark, carpet shark, cat shark, and walking shark. Shark Diet These sharks are bottom feeders with different food preferences during various times of their development. As juveniles, epaulette sharks prefer polychaete worms and as adults they prefer crabs. Overall when they are not eating their food of choice, they eat small bony fish and shrimp. They are nocturnal hunters, but have also been seen hunting at dusk and dawn. Habitat You can find these walking sharks off the coasts of Australia and Papua New Guinea. Epaulette sharks prefer to spend their time in the warm shallow water of coral reefs and tidal pools. During the breeding season, August to December, females will lay 2 eggs in a sac every two weeks. These eggs are laid near coral rocks where they can become entangled and locked into place. Predators The shark’s natural predators are larger sharks and fish such as groupers. Threats According to the IUCN, these sharks are not facing a significant threat of extinction, however they are still being monitored because of their potential decline due to climate change, habitat destruction, pollution, and the aquarium trade. Support Our Cause With your help and support, you can help MISS support researchers of color interested in pursuing research to better understand and conserve these sharks. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates on MISS! Interested in Learning More? Feel free to explore the MISS website and these links below.
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By: Christina Andrea Alvear  Image Source: Spongebob and Gary (both images) SpongeBob SquarePants character montage by Nickelodeon (NickRewind) CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia commons Hellooo everybody! Do you know what I love more than jelly fishin’? Savin the Sea! Baaahahahahahaha! I’ve partnered with MISS to talk about conservation. Savin the Sea is super important because lately I see a whole lotta trash in Bikini Bottom. The Problem Last week, I saw Mrs. Puff stuck in a plastic six pack ring. I found a plastic straw stuck in Gary’s shell and Squidward had to clean small bits of plastic from his clarinet. The problem isn’t just in Bikini Bottom, it's everywhere! Plastic waste makes up 80% of all marine pollution. By 2050, plastic will likely outweigh all fish in the sea. What you can do There’s a whole lot to do when savin the sea! How do we remember all of this? Use the 4 R’s: Refuse, Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle. If you have time to do more, join a beach clean up! Refuse Say “nooo thanks!” to disposable items. For example, when I order a krabby patty at Krusty Krabs for takeout and they ask if I want disposable utensils, I wave my hand and shake my head really hard and say “Thanks, but nooo way!” “I got knives and forks at home. That way, there is less I have to throw away and I can still share my patty with Gary. Right, Gary? “Meow” Reuse What do you use most? Skip disposables and get reusables. Avoid single use plastic bottles and use reusable bottles! Fun fact! Some parks are installing water bottle filling stations to do their part! It's not just about water bottles, you can get creative and repurpose all sorts of things. Reduce If you have to use disposable items, try to reduce how much stuff you use.Online shopping? Combine packages! For example, when getting groceries, bring your own handy dandy reusable bag. Sometimes, when I can’t find my bag, (in a low whisper) “I use Gary’s shell” Just don’t tell Gary! Baahahahahaha! Recycle If you have to throw away something, learn about where you can recycle different items. You might have different trash bins to throw away different items such as plastic, paper, food waste, and yard trimmings. It’s not just about disposing things properly, you can also get creative with, “Imagination” (*creates a rainbow out of thin air). My Ol’ Reliable, jelly fish net, is made of carbon fiber frame, titanium alloy net, and ergonomic silicone handle. Other jellyfish nets can be made of bamboo, metal, and other recycled materials! Even my house is recycled! It’s made of pineapple, straw, and wood. Remember, everyone has to do their part! You can practice the 4 R’s and volunteer to help reduce waste. I’m ready! I’m ready! Are you? Resources
Want to learn more and have fun activities to do with the family? Check out these links below! Things to do at home, at the store, on the water on the shore.: Refuse, Reuse, Reduce, Recycle https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/how-help/home Plastic pollution key facts https://oceanliteracy.unesco.org/plastic-pollution-ocean/ By: Christina Andrea Alvear Image Source: (left to right) Head of a pelagic thresher shark (Alopias pelagicus) by PiRO/NOAA Observer program, public domain via Wikimedia commons. Thresher Shark by Thomas Alexander CC by SA 4.0 via Wikimedia commons Can a shark be simultaneously goofy and elegant at the same time? Sure it can! We are proud to announce 2024’s March Madness winner: the Pelagic Thrasher (Alopias pelagicus). This shark reaches an average size of 10 ft and is blue gray with a white underbelly. It has puppy dog eyes, an elongated submarine body, long pectoral fins, and a remarkably long dagger-like tail. Their unique hunting strategy is to swim up to a school of fish at 45 mph and then make a hard stop so that all that energy can extend to their whip-like tail forward to stun their prey. This primary move is known as the overhead tail-slap. When the shark’s prey movements become erratic and difficult to take down, the sharks also employ the sideways tail-slap.  Diagram showing the motion of a Thresher shark’s tail slap generated from Oliver and colleagues’ research study. Image source: Oliver, S. P., Turner, J. R., Gann, K., Silvosa, M., & D'Urban Jackson, T. (2013). Image Source: Thresher sharks use tail-slaps as a hunting strategy. PloS one, 8(7), e67380. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067380 Shark Diet
Pelagic thresher sharks whip out their tails to eat herrings, flying fishes, mackerels, and squid. Depending on literature searches, their diet also includes the occasional crustacean and seagull. These threshers can fully breach the waters like dolphins and whales so, perhaps they grab a bird as a quick snack! (According to researchers, it is likely that they leap in the air instead, as a way of getting rid of parasites.) Luckily, humans are off the menu. They generally are shy and tend to stay away from divers. Habitat You can find these sharks in action in the open ocean of the Pacific, Indian, and Mediterranean sea. They can also be found off the northeast coast of Taiwan, and North American waters by California, and Mexico. For divers, the best location for divers to get a glimpse of these gray blue sharks are off the shores of Malapascua, an island in the Philippines. It is difficult to understand their migratory patterns since there are few tagging studies of these creatures and it is difficult to study them in the open ocean. The breeding season of pelagic threshers is unknown. What we do know is that female sharks have 1-2 pups over the course of 9 months. These pups are cannibalistic in their mother’s womb and feed on unfertilized eggs during development. When they are born, they can reach sizes of 4 ft., almost half the size of their mothers. This may be an evolutionary strategy to avoid being easy prey. Predators The shark’s natural predators are larger sharks, toothed whales, and humans who capture them for commercial and recreational fishing. They are prized for their fins, hide for leather products, and organs for medicinal and cosmetic products. These wondrous tail whipping sharks are on the endangered list. Support Our Cause With your help and support, you can help MISS support researchers of color interested in pursuing research to better understand and conserve these sharks. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates on our shark contenders for March Madness 2025! Interested in Learning More? Feel free to explore the MISS website and these links below.
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About missMISS provides a community and funded opportunities for gender minorities of color who wish to enter the field of shark sciences. We aim to show that there are many gender minorities of color succeeding in and interested in this field.
We fundraise and apply for grants to create paid opportunities to attempt to knock down the financial barrier into shark sciences. We encourage other organizations in our field to do the same. |
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