Pygmy Swell Shark Found In Sarawak Waters

October 3, 2007

Release from: Sulok Tawie
New Straits Times Online

MARINE scientists from the Fisheries Research Institute (FRI) here have discovered a new species of swell shark in the waters off Sarawak.

Known as the Sarawak pygmy swell shark (locally known as yu buncit, yu kembong or yu buntal), they were found near the edge of continental shelf off Tanjung Sirik in Mukah Division.

Annie Lim Pheik Khiok, a lab assistant with the FRI in Bintawa here, said the fish was caught near the shelf.

The males mature at about 320mm in total length while the females at between 350 and 400 mm in length.

It is a small-sized swell shark with a broad head, an inflatable stomach, with no labial furrows and its anterior nasal flaps do not overlap its mouth.