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Conservationists upbeat as zebra shark reintroduction in Raja Ampat gathers pace

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JAKARTA — A project to revive zebra shark numbers in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago has welcomed the successful hatching of 24 pups so far this year, including five most recently in April. The newest hatchling, Lingka, was named by the Indonesian public in an online poll. The name means “roaming” in the Acehnese language of northern Sumatra, at the other end of the Indonesian archipelago from Raja Ampat, with the hope that the shark will thrive in the wild and roam the waters of Raja Ampat. Zebra shark pup “Lingka”. Image courtesy of ReShark. Lingka is part of the StAR project, short for Stegostoma tigrinum Augmentation and Recovery. That project is in turn the first of several to be implemented under ReShark, a global coalition of more than 90 conservation organizations, aquariums, government agencies and more, dedicated to recovering threatened shark and ray populations around the world. StAR in particular focuses on restoring zebra sharks, an endangered species found throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific. For the project, adult zebra sharks at accredited facilities are being purpose-bred. Once they lay eggs, the eggs are shipped to the waters of Raja Ampat, where they are closely monitored at two nurseries. Each successful hatching then yields a 25-centimeter (10-inch) baby shark, known as a pup. Lingka and another pup born in April, Spotty Dotty, were born from eggs that came from SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium in Australia. There, four sharks have been enrolled in the StAR project. Two are males — Leo and Gohan,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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