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From where I belong: using mitochondrial DNA analysis to investigate the origin of a white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) captured in Indonesian waters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2024

C. P. O'Connell*
Affiliation:
O'Seas Conservation Foundation, Inc., Yonkers, NY, 10701, USA School for Marine Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, New Bedford, MA 02740, USA
A. P. Prasetyo
Affiliation:
Research Center for Conservation of Marine and Inland Water Resources, National Research and Innovation Agency, Cibinong 16911, Bogor, Indonesia
M. Stewart
Affiliation:
Project Hiu, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia
Fahmi
Affiliation:
Research Center for Oceanography, National Research and Innovation Agency, Pademangan 14430, Jakarta, Indonesia
*
Corresponding author: C. P. O'Connell; Email: oseasfdn@gmail.com
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Abstract

In 2013 and 2019, two separate encounters with a white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) were documented within Indonesian waters. Of particular importance was ca. 6.0 m male C. carcharias that was captured in Lombok, Indonesia in 2013, where an upper lateral tooth was retained. Using the D-loop sequences of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) associated with this captured white shark, the mtDNA was compared to the available mtDNA sequences in GenBank® associated with the Northwest Pacific and Australian (i.e. Southern-Western and Eastern) C. carcharias subpopulations to determine its point of origin. Results from the mtDNA analyses suggest that the point of origin for this captured C. carcharias is from one of the Australian subpopulations. When compared to primary literature, this migration presents a northerly range extension for this species; however, since it is unclear what Australian subpopulation this shark was from it is uncertain what subpopulation this range extension applies to. Although C. carcharias presence within Indonesian waters is likely a rare occurrence, being that Indonesia represents the largest shark fin exporter in the world, the utilization of these waters and potential unsustainable exploitation poses a definitive threat to this highly migratory top predator. Therefore, further research investigating the purpose and site fidelity of C. carcharias within these waters is critical to future multijurisdictional protection of this top predator.

Information

Type
Marine Record
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom
Figure 0

Figure 1. (A) Map illustrating the relative locations of white shark (C. carcharias) populations (modified from Huveneers et al., 2018). The populations are: Northeastern Pacific (NEP), Western North Atlantic (WNA), Mediterranean (MED), South African (SA), Northwest Pacific (NWP), Southern-Western Australian (SWA), Eastern Australian and New Zealand (EA), South American Pacific (SAP), and South American Atlantic (SAA). The rectangular region highlights the location of Indonesia. (B) Map representing Indonesia (area in black), as well as the white shark (C. carcharias) sightings within the region: (A) Nusa Penida in Bali, Indonesia (8°44′S; 115°32′E; 5.0 m female) and (B) Lombok, Indonesia (08°51′S; 118°18′E; 6.0 m male).

Figure 1

Figure 2. Recent and documented white shark (C. carcharias) sightings within Indonesian waters. (A) An estimated 5.0 m TL female C. carcharias sighted by divers at Nusa Penida in Bali, Indonesia in 2019 © Two Fish Divers. (B) A 6.0 m TL male C. carcharias captured by fishermen in eastern Lombok, Indonesia in 2013 © Fahmi and Dharmadi (2014). (C) Upper lateral tooth collected from the white shark C. carcharias landed in eastern Lombok, Indonesia in 2013. © Fahmi and Dharmadi (2014).

Figure 2

Figure 3. Gel electrophoresis image of the amplified sequence associated with the 6.0 m TL white shark (C. carcharias) captured in 2013 by demersal longline fishermen off of eastern Lombok, Indonesia. The 100 bp DNA Ladder by Geneaid™ was used (lane 1). Experiments were conducted using three distinct primer sets: Leray-XT (Wangensteen et al., 2018), Elas02 (Taberlet et al., 2012), and GWS (Pardini et al., 2000). Each primer set was designed to target specific regions, namely cytochrome c oxidase I region (COI; lane 2), 12S ribosomal RNA region (12S; lane 3), and D-loop region (D-loop; lane 4), respectively. The Leray-XT and 12S primers amplified sequences were used to confirm the identification of species, whereas the GWS primer sequences were utilized for further investigation. The negative control (Borneo river shark [G. fowlerae]) was used to validate GWS primer (lane 5).

Figure 3

Table 1. BLAST result using the NCBI for the 6.0 m TL male white shark (C. carcharias) captured in eastern Lombok, Indonesia

Figure 4

Figure 4. Genetic relationship of 29 white sharks (C. carcharias) from the Northwest Pacific (Japan) and Australia–New Zealand subpopulations in comparison to the Indonesian specimen using the D-loop region inferred using the neighbour-joining method with the Kimura-2 model for 1000 bootstrap replications. There was a total of 412 positions in the final dataset. Bootstrap support values are shown near internal nodes.