Off the coast of Indonesia’s easternmost island, on a bright January day this year, Nesha Ichida waded into the crystal-clear waters of a secluded lagoon, gently cradling a 15-week-old zebra shark named Charlie. She lowered her hands into the water and Charlie swam free — weaving his long, striped tail fin as he disappeared into the reef. A short time later, Ichida, a local marine biologist, released two more shark pups into the water. “We had been working toward that moment for three years, we were so proud,” she recalled recently. “My hope is that Charlie and the others will be ambassadors for their species — and all the other sharks we want to protect.” © Mark Erdmann Charlie nine weeks after hatching. The three pups (Charlie and his sisters Kathlyn and Audrey) are the first endangered sharks ever to be bred in captivity for the purpose of being released into the wild.…