Carcharhinus macloti (Müller & Henle, 1839)

White, William T. & Ko’Ou, Alfred, 2018, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of Papua New Guinea, Zootaxa 4411 (1), pp. 1-82 : 36

Carcharhinus macloti (Müller & Henle, 1839)

Hardnose Shark

Carcharias (Hypoprion) macloti Müller & Henle, 1839: 34 , pl. 10. Holotype: RMNH (stuffed). Type locality: New Guinea.

Local synonymy: Hypoprion macloti— Munro, 1958: 113 (Milne Bay Province, New Britain). Carcharhinus macloti— Munro, 1967: 9, pl. 1, fig. 9 (New Guinea); Filewood, 1973: 6 (PNG); Compagno, 1984: 486 (New Guinea); White et al., 2018: 152, figs (PNG).

PNG voucher material: (13 spec.). CSIRO H 7834-01, juvenile male 410 mm TL, south of Deception Bay, Gulf of Papua, 8°1’54” S, 144°39’13” E, 22–25 m depth, 15 Dec. 2014; CSIRO H 7835-01, juvenile male 410 mm TL, south of Deception Bay, Gulf of Papua, 8°2’16” S, 144°38’26” E, 22–23 m depth, 15 Dec. 2014; CSIRO H 7825-02 (dried jaw), female 840 mm TL, east of Fly River mouth, Gulf of Papua, 8°37’ S, 144°11’ E, 17–19 m depth, 13 Dec. 2014; CSIRO H 8153-01 (dried jaw), adult male 770 mm TL, east of Fly River mouth, Gulf of Papua, 8°36’48” S, 144°11’19” E, 17–23 m depth, 1 Apr. 2015; CSIRO H 8108-01 (dried jaw and cranium), female 810 mm TL, south of Kerema, Gulf of Papua, 8°1’58.08” S, 145°45’17.52” E, 12–15 m depth, 16 Sep. 2015; CSIRO H 8152-02 (dried jaw and cranium), female 820 mm TL, south of Deception Bay, Gulf of Papua, 8°9’ S, 144°28’ E, 19–23 m depth, 9 Dec. 2014; KFRS E.303 (5 sets of dried jaws), Orangerie Bay, Jun. 1967; KFRS E.739, female 380 mm TL, south of Deception Bay, Gulf of Papua, 8°0’ S, 144°42’ E, 18–21 m depth, 8 Dec. 2014; KFRS E.751, juvenile male 390 mm TL, Freshwater Bay, Gulf of Papua, 8°11’ S, 146°1’ E, 19–20 m depth, 29 Nov. 2014.

Remarks: Holotype collected by Heinrich Christian Macklot in August 1828 during an expedition to New Guinea onboard the HM corvette Triton; although a German naturalist, he was employed through the Rijksmuseum in Leiden and the expedition was to Dutch New Guinea (= West Papua), thus not collected from PNG. First recorded from PNG by Munro (1958) from Milne Bay Province and New Britain. Commonly taken as bycatch in the Gulf of Papua prawn trawl fishery and by gillnet fishers at the mouth of the Sepik River.