New Cobia

“At first glance, I thought it was another black king cobia but when I looked closer at the markings on its body, I knew it was different,” said Dr Sher Khan Panhwar, who along with his students was on a routine survey of the Gwadar fish harbour when he spotted the new species.

Dr Panhwar, a professor at Ka­­rachi Unive­rsity’s Center of Exc­ellence in Marine Biology and co-author of the study, said he went to the coastal area of Balo­chistan along with his students last year to study black king cobia or Rachycentron canadum, a commercially popular large fish found across the world.

After the discovery, Dr Panhwar and his team offered the fishermen money in ex­­ch­a­n­­ge for the fish. At first the fishermen refused, stating that the ‘Sangla’, a local name of the species before its discovery, had been booked by some buyers who enjoy its meat.

However, the team continued their efforts and finally with the help of some harbour officials managed to convince the fishermen and get their hands on specimens, weighing four and seven kilograms costing them about Rs16,000.

The specimens were then iced and sent to the laboratory which was 650km away from the Gwadar harbour, he said.

Back at the laboratory, Dr Pan­hwar and his colleague, Imtiaz Kashani, analysed the unusual cobias, examining their appearance, dissecting them, and comparing them with the typical species, they wrote in the study.

Soon clear patterns began to emerge.

The fish from Gwadar proved to be subtly yet consistently different, prompting the researchers to recognise that they had identified two new species.