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Issue: Vol. 1591 No. 1: 21 Sep. 2007
Type: Correspondence
Published: 2007-09-21
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1591.1.3
Page range: 67–68
Abstract views: 44
PDF downloaded: 2

The Persian/Arabian Gulf’s sole great white shark Carcharodon carcharias (Lamniformes: Lamnidae) record from Kuwait: misidentification of a sandtiger shark Carcharias taurus (Lamniformes: Odontaspididae)

RSK Environment Ltd., 172 Chester Road, Helsby, Cheshire WA6 OAR, U.K
Shark Research Center, Iziko - South African Museum, P.O. Box 61, 25 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town, South Africa 8000
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Bristol, Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2LR, U.K
Lamniformes Lamnidae

Abstract

Records of the great white shark Carcharodon carcharias (Linnaeus) (Lamniformes: Lamnidae) in the Persian/Arabian Gulf (hereafter referred to as “The Gulf”) are limited to a single report from Kuwait, in the northwest Gulf, which has subsequently been noted in key references (e.g. Compagno, 2001). Khalaf (1987) recorded C. carcharias based on an observation of a mounted specimen in Kuwait Science and Natural History Museum on a visit there in March 1987. The specimen is reported as being a female C. carcharias of 3m in length, caught off Kuwait’s coast and supplied to the museum on the 14th of April 1984. A black and white photograph of the anterior portion (from just posterior of the pelvic fins) was included in Khalaf’s account (Fig. 1 here), but no measurements or morphological data were presented.

References

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