A highlight of our recent dive at Port Hughes jetty was the sighting of a Cobbler Wobbegong, Sutorectus tentaculatus. The shark seemingly sprang up out of nowhere between my buddy and me. It started off swimming more or less in my direction before suddenly turning and swimming towards my buddy, my son-in-law, Peter.
I could only watch helplessly and take a couple of quick, out of focus photos of the shark as it seemed to linger at the back of Peter’s legs. I may have tried to approach them both to advise Peter of this new arrival, but the shark soon swam past Peter and into the distance.
I could only get Peter’s attention and point after the quickly disappearing shark. As I tried to lead the way in the shark’s direction, it seemed that our two other fellow divers had witnessed the shark swimming off.
I soon managed to find the shark again and was able to take a couple more rushed photos before it swam off again once more.
I last wrote about the Cobbler Wobbegong for our August 2013 newsletter. The main focus of “The Cobbler Wobbegong (Sutorectus tentaculatus)” was that David Muirhead had “found an intact small Cobbler Wobbegong shark beach-washed at Brighton beach on Monday 8th July 2013”.
As reported in the August 2013 newsletter, David took several photos of the beach-washed shark back at his home, including this one: –
The beach-washed Cobbler Wobbegong at David’s home
(Taken by David Muirhead)
I believe that I once took a print photo of a Cobbler Wobbegong that I came across years ago, but I have since misplaced the print. I came across a juvenile Cobbler Wobbegong during our snorkel at Seaford in June 2019. I posted photos of the shark on iNat.
My photo from our snorkel at Seaford
As reported in our August 2013 newsletter, “Phil Mercurio found this Cobbler Wobbegong at Port Hughes in 2008: –
Cobbler Wobbegong found at Port Hughes in 2008
(Taken by Phil Mercurio)
This overhead shot shows that the shark was quite wide (and heavy?): –
Overhead shot of the Cobbler Wobbegong at Port Hughes
(Taken by Phil Mercurio)
Phil found and photographed this leech on the Cobbler Wobbegong: –
Leech found on the Cobbler Wobbegong
(Taken by Phil Mercurio)
| David Muirhead has since commented, “I remember reading about the leech that Phil Mercurio imaged on that cobbler wobbegong and I think I was convinced that it was indeed a leech at the time. But now (restricted as I type this to my tiny Android screen) the little thing closely resembles a kelp or grass Clingfish. So I wonder if this was a cleaning episode and nothing to do with leeches. Just wondering.” I replied by saying, “I was mostly leaving the leech out of the story. It looks quite rigid for any kind of fish, but I will include the pic in the report for further comments.”) |
Here is a close-up of the ‘leech’, cropped from the original photo: –
Cropped image of the ‘leech’ found on the Cobbler Wobbegong
(Taken by Phil Mercurio)
(According to the web page found at http://australianmuseum.net.au/Cobbler-Wobbegong-Sutorectus-tentaculatus , “The Cobbler Wobbegong (Sutorectus tentaculatus) can be recognised by the rows of warty tubercles along the back and its pattern of saddles and blotches. It has black spots on the dorsal surface and fins. Size range: 92 cm. Distribution: The species occurs from the central coast of Western Australia to eastern South Australia.”)
When researching this topic at home, I found that three of my six fish & shark books made no reference to Cobbler Wobbegongs. One of the other three books only made a brief reference to them. Another of the other three books merely features a photo of both a full shark body and a photo of the mouth and teeth of the shark. It seems that these sharks would have a pretty good bite using their sharp teeth.
The last of the other three books features a drawing of the shark from overhead. According to the brief write-up about the shark, it is “Dangerous if molested”.
I posted my recent photos from Port Hughes on iNaturalist.
My thanks go to David Muirhead and Phil Mercurio for their Cobbler Wobbegong photos.
Steve,
I remember reading about the leech that Phil Mercurio imaged on that cobbler wobbegong and I think I was convinced that it was indeed a leech at the time.
But now (restricted as I type this to my tiny Android screen) the little thing closely resembles a kelp or grass Clingfish.
So I wonder if this was a cleaning episode and nothing to do with leeches.
Just wondering.
Cheers,
David Muirhead
David,
I was mostly leaving the leech out of the story. It looks quite rigid for any kind of fish, but I will include the pic in the report for further comments.
Cheers,
Steve