Whiskery Sharks

The whiskery shark (Furgaleus macki) is a species of houndshark in the family Triakidae, and the only member of its genus. This common shark inhabits the Australian continental shelf from Western Australia to the Bass Strait, to a depth of 220 m (720 ft). It is demersal in habits and prefers rocky and vegetated habitats. Stout-bodied and almost "humpbacked" in form, the whiskery shark can be distinguished from all other members of its family by the presence of long nasal barbels. Its two moderately large dorsal fins are roughly equal in size. It is brownish gray above and lighter below, with a pattern of darker saddles and blotches in younger sharks. This species reaches 1.6 m (5.2 ft) in length.

The diet of the whiskery shark consists almost entirely of octopuses. It is viviparous; females bear litters of four to 28 pups every other year from August to October, after a gestation period of 7–9 months. This harmless shark is used for its meat, being one of the species marketed as "flake" in Australia. It is mainly caught by a Western Australian commercial gillnet fishery. Its numbers declined significantly from overfishing in the 1970s and early 1980s, leading to the introduction of new management measures in the mid-1980s. Since then, strict fishery management has kept the whiskery shark population stable or increasing, resulting in its listing as of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.