‘Most wanted’ lists are not just for criminals. Or indeed, for humans. Some include sharks, but not for any crimes they might have committed.
Carcharhinus hemiodon, also known as the Pondicherry shark. Last seen: 1979.
As part of an initiative by Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC), the Lost Species organisation had put up a list of the 25 most wanted ‘lost species’ on earth. Creatures so endangered that they haven’t been seen in years – even decades. The Pondicherry shark is one of these.
The last captive sharks were found before 1900. This, for a species that once spanned the shores of two oceans.
The Pondicherry shark is a type of shark known as ‘Requiem’ – a word that is a sort of ode to the dead (alternate etymologies trace the name to the word, ‘reschignier’, which means ‘to grimace while bearing teeth”). A great deal of what we know about this shark was written by two German biologists in 1839 – Johannes Müller and Jakob Henle. They describe it as a small shark, probably up to one metre long – and provided a small sketch.
Even in the sketch, the shark looks fairly displeased, for it has reason to be. The Pondicherry shark is critically endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature red list; one step away from extinction. This, for a species that once spanned the Gulf of Oman, The Malabar, Canara and Pondicherry coasts as well as those of Borneo and Java – and perhaps even as far as the South China Sea. It’s not known whether this was a coastal or a river shark, given that all specimens have been found in rivers.
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