Sharks are among the planet’s oldest vertebrates, having survived five mass extinctions over more than 420 million years. Like everyone else, Ford stood in the crowd and held up a phone to document the scene himself. Moments later her palms opened, and Charlie slipped away, his long tail curling as he dove toward the sandy bottom and an unfathomable future. “I’m feeling very hopeful that Charlie is going to be the ambassador” for all shark species, she said. She held in her hands the first captive animal that would be freed in these waters, a young zebra shark called Charlie, named for a West Papuan provincial official who'd championed this project.īelow towering limestone formations in the remote Wayag Islands, 90 miles by boat from the nearest town, I watched the young shark sway beneath her fingers.īefore a small crowd of government officials, the indigenous Kawe villagers who manage Wayag, and a few celebrity wildlife advocates, including actor Harrison Ford, Ichida shared a parting wish: She hoped this shark would ignite a movement to restore ocean predators. This region has since protected sharks, and Ichida was here to jumpstart an ambitious rewilding operation.
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