Yoooo new shark info just dropped!
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So in the past, the deep-sea goblin shark hasn't really been studied all that much in its natural environment because, well, deep sea.
Buuuut!
Guess what's happened for the first time, y'all
The deep-sea goblin shark has been studied in its natural environment for the first time!!
Goblin sharks are, essentially, living fossils. They're the only extant (living) species of a lineage that goes back nearly 125 million years. Their origins are further back that some dinosaurs!!
They're not pretty and they're not friendly looking either but they're still adorable!
The problem with goblin sharks is that they've only really ever been studied after getting caught in deep sea fishing nets and lines so pretty much nothing is known about how they behave, interact, etc etc beyond physiological stuff. Which, honestly, sad af because it's meant we've mainly had to guess about them (educated guesses but still guesses all-the-same).
But times are a-changing now!
Side-note: their faces are so weird okay, I love them.
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Back in 2019 though, there was an expedition to investigate the deep-sea ecosystems around Jarvis Island which, btw, is a protected wildlife area about a thousand nautical miles south of Honolulu. The lead author of this study, Aaron Judah, examined a load of footage from the dive around Jarvis Island and confirmed that what the expedition members thought was a goblin shark was, indeed, a goblin shark.
Then, in 2024 another sighting was reported in the Tonga Trench (near Fiji in the southern Pacific) via a baited camera (they got to see it actually eating food!!!). So Judah looked at that footage in his study too!
The thing is tho... is that the Tonga Trench is the second deepest marine trench in the world. Second only to the Mariana Trench. And the goblin shark seen in the Tonga Trench at a depth of almost two thousand metres!
Prior to that sighting, it was believed that goblin sharks only dived to around 1300 metres at most! So this is monumental!!
So, not only was a goblin shark seen at a depth far greater than it was believed they dived to, but it was also viewed in its natural, alive state, existing and being alive and that's just- it's just amazing! And geographically, too! Now, we now know that the range of goblin sharks is larger than we previously thought.
This is honestly amazing and kinda world-changing just like the new footage of the Greenland shark. We now have new avenues of research and study into goblin sharks and how they exist and interact with deep-sea ecosystems and that's just beyond amazing.
With these sightings and the new information about goblin sharks, the species can be added to the list of recorded species in a protected area too!
And if you want to see video the sighting, here it is!
Or you can watch the YouTube video below instead
