Rare Shark Captured

[Nesacat]

This is pretty worrying. In the past few months several deep sea creatures have been caught on the surface of oceans around Asia. Wonder if there's something happening on the ocean bed.


TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- A species of shark rarely seen alive because its natural habitat is about 2,000 feet under the sea was captured on film by staff at a Japanese marine park this week.

The Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo, was alerted by a fisherman at a nearby port on Sunday that he had spotted an odd-looking eel-like creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth.

Marine park staff caught the 5 foot (1.6 meter) long creature, which they identified as a female frilled shark, sometimes referred to as a "living fossil" because it is a primitive species that has changed little since prehistoric times.

The shark appeared to be in poor condition when park staff moved it to a seawater pool where they filmed it swimming and opening its jaws.

"We believe moving pictures of a live specimen are extremely rare," said an official at the park. "They live between 1,968 and 3,280 feet (600 and 1,000 meters) under the water, which is deeper than humans can go."
"We think it may have come close to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters," the official said.

The shark died a few hours after being caught.

Frilled sharks, which feed on other sharks and sea creatures, are sometimes caught in the nets of trawlers but are rarely seen alive.

Photo gallery & video clip of divers with the shark

 

[j d worthington]

Fascinating creature, Cat... thank you. Am wondering myself if something's up... especially with that recent sighting (and filming) of Architeuthis, something which I don't believe has been done before... or at very least, not more than a handful of times... on the surface.

Anyone out there know of any input on this from the scientific community?

 

[bowerbird]

I am a regular reader of popular science type books and I have not read anything. That being said there is an awful lot of pollution still being pumped out of Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

Maybe one day Godzilla.......................

 

[Talysia]

I saw the video of this earlier on the news. Quite a surprise to see something like that in the seas around Japan, especially since the species is so rarely seen at all. It really does look prehistoric.

 

[The Ace]

I knew of the existence of this species, but it's the first time I've seen photos. Being a deep-sea species they have rarely been photographed.

 

[HoopyFrood]

That is an amazing creature. It seems I'm partial to the prehistoric creatures, the ones that haven't evolved in thousands or even millions of years (and the frilled shark certainly has that prehistoric look about it, doesn't it?) My favourite animal is the Horseshoe crab...I think I now have a new liking for the Frilled Shark as well! I hope there isn't anything wrong with the oceanbed...

 

[Faceless Woman]

Poor baby.

Of course there's something wrong with the ocean bed. There's something dreadfully wrong with the entire planet. What makes you think that just because humans can't reach the deepest depths they - we - won't find a way to screw it up? It's what we're best at.

Did they even try to give medical help, or did they just capture it because they could? It seems to be the knee-jerk reaction when facing something rare. Own it.

You are right. This sort of thing has been happening more and more recently, starting with the whale in the Thames, or maybe even with the Coeleacanth <sp?>.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Did they even try to give medical help, or did they just capture it because they could? It seems to be the knee-jerk reaction when facing something rare. Own it.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was near the surface, where it could be found and captured, because it was ill or injured in the first place. It was, as reports I've heard and seen have noted, already far out of its usual deep environment, and at any rate it could probably not have survived long away from the pressures of the depths where it usually lives. They probably captured it because they suspected it was already doomed and saw the chance to learn something from it before it died.

The fact that it was taken to a marine park after the fisherman reported it does not automatically mean that it was only taken for exploitative purposes. I don't know about such parks in Japan, where it was taken, but the large marine parks here in the States are very active in preservation programs and scientific research.