10/03/2022
Rare find alert! In
Roatan Honduras
Guests and staff of the Roatan Aggressor were excited to come across this spreckeled nurse shark this week! Captain Alan says he has never seen one like this before! After a little bit of research into this dalmation-like shark, we discovered this to be a condition called "Leucism". Leucism is a genetic condition that results in a partial lack of the pigment melanin. The mutation is also known as "pied", "piebald" or "partial albinism".
According to Earth Touch News Network, many leucistic sharks sport either "cow-like" patterns with large, dark patches or overall white colouration (seen here) but leucistic nurse sharks tend to be heavily spotted.
Nurse sharks are bottom dwellers, and that namesake feature helps them suck up shellfish, squid and other invertebrates from the sediment. Unlike many of their top-predator kin, who need to keep swimming to get oxygen, nurse sharks can safely settle down, and they tend to spend their days resting on sandy bottoms, or in crevices between rocks and corals. Rather than using forward motion to "ram" oxygenated water over the gills (a technique known as ram-ventilation), these long-tailed fish breathe by pumping water with their cheek, or "buccal", muscles.
