wobbegong

plural wobbegongs

1. Any of several species of bottom-dwelling carpet sharks in the family Orectolobidae, distinguished by their small vegetation-like flaps of skin around the mouth.

   The Shark Attack File lists only one authenticated wobbegong attack, but contains fourteen "unauthoritative" attacks, and given the distinctive appearance of these sharks, it is very likely that at least some of the sharks were wobbegongs.

   1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 98

   1 more example

   The wobbegong is of little use; the liver will make some oil, and which is particularly good for parasites on animals, but the fish is not sought after, and the natives attack it when in their way, but do not meddle with it otherwise. South, as far as Jervis Bay, they call this fish thubbegong.

   1882, Julian Edmund Tenison-Woods, “Sharks”, in Fish and Fisheries of New South Wales, Thomas Richards, page 95