Ocean News

Surprising sleeper shark!

22nd February 2012

Shark footage recorded from ROV onboard Stena DrillMAX at 9100 feet (2770 m) depth offshore Brazil, shot on February 11, 2012, showed a very deep diving shark. According to scientist Jeffrey Gallant of the Greenland Shark and Elasmobranch Education and Research Grouep / GEERG, this is probably a southern sleeper shark, but it could also be a Greenland shark or a Pacific sleeper shark. It is however still not known if the distribution of these species extends to the southern hemisphere. These species are virtually impossible to distinguish with images alone. Incidentally, this would be a new depth record for the Greenland shark. The deepest observation to date was 2,200 m (1988), so this could be a new record!

You can watch the shark on Youtube, at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch