Goblin sharks filmed alive as depth range explodes

Scientists have filmed goblin sharks alive in deep-sea habitats for the first time in the wild, with sightings in 2019 near Jarvis Island and again in August 2024 in the Tonga Trench. The new observations, published May 19 in the Journal of Fish Biology, drama

The first time the animal appeared, it wasn’t caught, dragged in, or pulled from a net. It simply swam past—alive, healthy, and solitary.

In July 2019. scientists using a remotely operated underwater vehicle explored the central Pacific Ocean near Jarvis Island when an 11-foot-long goblin shark with a long snout glided by at roughly 4. 000 feet below the surface. The study team estimated the large, solitary male was more than 50 years old based on its size.

Five years later. in August 2024. another goblin shark showed up on camera. this time in a very different part of the deep ocean. Researchers recorded the shark in the Tonga Trench in the southwestern Pacific Ocean with baited cameras. They suspected the animal was a female. It did not approach the bait. but it swam in front of the camera long enough for researchers to get a clear look.

These observations were described in a study published on May 19 in the Journal of Fish Biology. They mark the first times scientists have seen goblin sharks alive in the wild. Until now, most live observations came from sharks accidentally hauled in on fishing lines.

“We’ve never really seen them alive,” study co-author Alan Jamieson, a marine biologist and the founding director of the Minderoo-University of Western Australia Deep-Sea Research Center, said. “We actually know virtually nothing about them.”

The 2024 footage also sharpened the scientific picture in a way that immediately changes what researchers thought was possible. The Tonga Trench sighting occurred around 6,550 feet below the surface, extending the species’ known depth range by nearly 2,300 feet. It also pushed the known geographic range outward by thousands of miles.

Until these sightings. scientists had documented goblin sharks in a limited set of places: along the western coast of the United States. in the Gulf of Mexico. along the southwest coast of Australia. near Japan. and near New Zealand. The new records suggest the rarely seen sharks travel far into the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The implications run deeper than mapping. Scientists suspect goblin sharks have a single global population, a conclusion reflected in the animals’ limited genetic diversity and their expansive geographic range.

The pictures are also changing how people imagine these animals. Goblin sharks are often described as terrifyingly strange-looking—elongated snouts, retractable jaws, and pinkish-gray skin with soft, flabby bodies. Culum Brown. a behavioral ecologist at Macquarie University in Australia who was not involved in the research. called them “arguably the ugliest shark on the planet. ” saying. “They are ridiculously horrendous to look at. … Not even their mother would love their faces. … It’s like something out of a horror movie.”.

Capable of growing up to 20 feet long, goblin sharks glide beneath the waves with their mouths normally retracted inside their heads. When hunting, they rapidly shoot their jaws forward—compared to a slingshot—and use their sharp, pointy teeth to grasp fish, squid, and crustaceans.

And in the rare moments they are observed behaving normally, they don’t look frantic. When they’re not nabbing prey. goblin sharks are described as living “seemingly mellow lives. ” rarely swimming at more than a very sluggish pace—an energy-saving adaptation for the deep ocean. where high-calorie meals are scarce.

The new sightings also arrive with a reminder that public belief about this shark has been messy before. In August 2020. a citizen scientist claimed that a well-preserved. dead goblin shark had washed ashore in Greece. even though the animals had never been seen there. Later, researchers suspected it was actually a plastic goblin shark toy, sparking controversy.

That history of confusion makes these camera moments feel even more important. Goblin sharks are sometimes called “living fossils” because their lineage dates back nearly 125 million years. Yet despite their ancient pedigree, scientists still know very little about their real lives in the deep.

“It is really important that we still perform natural history work,” lead author Aaron Judah, a marine biologist at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, said in a statement. “New discoveries like this demonstrate that there is still so much to explore in our deep ocean home.”

Judah also described the encounter in July 2019 as something rare in its own right: “Seeing the most iconic of all the deep-sea sharks alive and looking healthy in its natural habitat is a unique honor.”

goblin shark deep sea Tonga Trench Jarvis Island Journal of Fish Biology deep-sea research marine biology underwater cameras Alan Jamieson Aaron Judah