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MOSS LANDING, Calif - A student on the Central Coast helped discover eight new species of sharks in the Indian Ocean after studying abroad for about two months. Now, he and other researchers will take the sharks' genetics, and do some extensive measuring.
Clerkin said fishermen in the Indian Ocean caught the sharks by accident in their huge nets and that's how he first laid eyes on the new species.
"Sharks haven't really been explored as much as we think. These sharks are in the deep sea, and it took us like a week just to get them out, really far out and deep," said Paul Clerkin.
"These are probably more important than a white shark. A white shark is protected in North America and in many countries in the world, whereas things like these that don't even have a name to them are falling under the radar," said David Ebert, program director for the Pacific Shark Research Center.
That's why Ebert said it's important not to forget them.
"The hope is we name these things and learn something about their life history and their role in the environment out here," he said.
In the past year, the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories has named about 20 new shark species.
About 80 percent of the approximately 1,200 known shark species grow to less than six feet in total length.
