Meet the deep-sea ghost shark, a mysteriously scary creature you have never seen before! Although this type of sharks has been around for at least 300 million years (earlier than dinosaurs), this is probably the first time they were caught on camera. In the sensational video, we get a close-up of this absent-eyed, strangely pale and wing-finned fish also known as chimaera.
When the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California deployed a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in waters as deep as 6,700 feet near California and Hawaii, they didn't expect to see the rare shark. “The guys doing the video were actually geologists,” Dave Ebert from the Institute told National Geographic. “Normally, people probably wouldn’t have been looking around in this area, so it’s a little bit of dumb luck.”
The pointy-nosed deep-sea creature is usually found near Australia and New Zealand, and this is the first time it was spotted in the Northern hemisphere. Interestingly, this particular species of rare animals has a retractable sex organ on their heads and little dots that work as sensory canals that help them navigate their next meal.
The ghost shark wasn't shy in front of the camera: “It’s almost a little comical... It would come up and bounce its nose off the lens and swim around and come back.” With the help of technology, we can only wonder what other deep-sea fishes we will be able to say 'hello' to in the years to come.
More info: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute | Facebook | Instagram (h/t: nationalgeographic)
This species has been around for 300 million years, but this is probably the first time camera captured them
Meet the deep-sea ghost shark, a mysterious creature you have never seen before!
Interestingly, this particular species has a retractable sex organ on their heads
They were spotted by remotely operated vehicles as deep as 6,700 feet in the Pacific Ocean
