Ghost Shark Caught on Camera for the First Time

In 2009, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California sent an ROV (remote operated vehicle), on multiple dives of the waters of California and Hawaii which reached the depths of 6,700 feet.  They have recently released the video taken from those dives, and they have captured something incredible.  They have filmed a Ghost Shark which is also known as Chimaeras.  Ghost sharks are dead-eyed, winged-finned fish and they don’t have ragged rows of teeth; that resides at great depths and no sunlight can penetrate.  It is believed that they have been around long before the dinosaurs.          

According to Dave Ebert, program director for Pacific Shark Research Center at Moss Landing Laboratories, “The guys doing the video were actually geologists” “Normally, people probably wouldn’t have been looking around in this area, so it’s a little bit of dumb luck,”.

Upon seeing the footage from the ROV, researchers was not sure if they have captured a ghost shark since it did not resemble to common ghost sharks that live in the area.  They have asked help from Ebert and other chimaera experts and they have found out that this was a pointy-nosed blue chimaera (Hydrolagus Trolli), which is specie that is normally found of the coast of Australia and New Zealand.

This has been the first time that a pointy-nosed blue chimaera was captured on video alive and to be discovered residing in the Northern Hemisphere is truly remarkable.

Via National Geographic News