Wreck hunters record extremely rare shark - video

A group of shipwreck explorers in the course of their search encountered, and documented on video, an encounter with a very rare species of shark. The team of the famous Paul Allen, which is responsible, among others, for the discovery of the wreck of the Japanese battleship “Musashi”, while working with the ROV robot suddenly spotted an unexpected guest on the wreck…

The crew of the research vessel R/V “Petrel” immediately took an interest in the unexpected company and focused the robot’s cameras on it. This resulted in good quality close-ups that helped identify which species we were dealing with.

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The grey hexanchus (hexanchus griseus) grows to a size of around 4.5 metres and is one of the largest sharks in the world. This remarkable creature, with characteristics characteristic of sharks from the Triassic period, is one of the last living representatives of its family. Most of the species to which it is ‘related’ have long since died out.

The encounter with the unusual shark took place in early December, during an exploration of World War II-era wrecks near the Philippines. Interestingly, it was the first recorded encounter with a grey sixshark in this part of the world. This is unusual as the waters of the Philippines were famous for their lush and diverse fauna.

[blockquote style=”2″]”This is a remarkable recording of a grey sixshark, an extremely rare shark that inhabits deep waters. To our knowledge, this is the first encounter with a live representative of this species in the Philippine region. Until now, we have only had a few confirmed cases, known from fisheries. It highlights the richness and diversity of the marine fauna and the need for its sustainable management,” – said Gonzalo Araujo, Executive Director of the Large Marine Vertebrate Institute of the Philippines (LAMAVE).[/blockquote]

The grey shark is a very poorly understood species. This is due to the fact that it inhabits extremely deep waters, sticking rather to the bottom of the oceans. The capabilities of Paul Allen’s vessel R/V “Petrel”, however, allow us to hope that more similar discoveries and unusual encounters lie ahead.

Source: paulallen.com