Fish Expert Says “New” Shark Species in Belize Might Not Be

What is thought to be a different species of hammerhead shark that was recently discovered in Belizean waters might not be new to Belize at all. This is according to a former senior fisheries officer with the Belize Fisheries Department and a marine biologist by profession. George Myvett told News Five today that the Sphyrna alleni, or the shovelbill shark that was discovered near Robinson Point offshore Belize City and near Riversdale Village, Stann Creek might be among a few more species that are living in Belizean waters and we may not know. The sharks were caught between 2016 and 2019 but research on them just confirmed their species in a publication two days ago. According to George Myvett, there are about five hundred and thirty species of shark in the world, and eight of them are known to be in the Caribbean and Belize. But Myvett reasoned that there has not been any exhaustive research on sharks in Belize, so, there can very likely be far more than just the eight living here.

 

George Myvett, Marine Biologist

“This new species that has been identified is a relatively small species. The record that has been cited is it goes to about three point five feet, which is relatively small. As far as sharks go, I would say that generally speaking, Belize is a living laboratory in as far as marine biodiversity, and as far as general conservation issues are concerned, there’s a lot to discover. In relation to the general public, most people would not know the difference between this new species that has been found and other pre-existing sharks that closely resemble this species. So, for science, it is a new species, and when it comes out, it’s referred to as a taxonomy. There are very fine details that taxonomists will go through, and this includes issues such as the number of gill slits, where the gill overlaps the fins in most issues, such as genetics. So for this one, they went as deep as genetics. So this species has been known but it has been  mistakenly or previously classified as another species, and it’s only very, very recently, since 2021 that studies were genuinely begun and the possibility that this species of scallop, it’s a small scallop has been identified as a separate species, but more than likely, there are a range of other species in Belize.”