Deep sea shark caught on camera in Antarctica's waters for the first time

There have been no prior records of sharks in this area, and researchers believe that other Antarctic sharks are living at these depths, feeding on the carcasses of whales and giant squids to sustain themselves.

18/02/26

"Researchers were delighted by a significant and serendipitous discovery while on expedition in the Antarctic, as they captured the first ever image of a shark in the area’s near-freezing waters.

"Experts largely assumed sharks did not live or swim in the area. That was until this sleeper shark (somniosus antarcticus), swam slowly across their camera frame.

"The shark was estimated to be between 3 and 4 metres in length, and was recorded at 490 metres below sea level – where the temperature was a near-freezing 1.27ºC, or 34.29 ºF.

"Alan Jamieson, the founding director of the University of Western Australia-based research centre, said he found no record of another shark found in the Antarctic Ocean.

“We went down there not expecting to see sharks because there’s a general rule of thumb that you don’t get sharks in Antarctica,” said Jamieson.

“And it’s not even a little one either. It’s a hunk of a shark. These things are tanks,” he added.

"Peter Kyne, a Charles Darwin University conservation biologist independent of the research centre, agreed that a shark had never before been recorded so far south.

…"Only a few research cameras are positioned at that specific depth in Antarctic waters, and those that are can only operate during the Southern Hemisphere summer months – from December through February.

“The other 75% of the year, no one’s looking at all. … "Jamieson said.

https://oceanographicmagazine.com/news/deep-sea-shark-caught-on-camera-in-antarcticas-waters-for-the-first-time/

"The shark, filmed in January 2025, was a substantial specimen with an estimated length of between 3 and 4 meters (10 and 13 feet)….

"The camera operated by the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, which investigates life in the deepest parts of the world’s oceans, was positioned off the South Shetland Islands near the Antarctic Peninsula. That is well inside the boundaries of the Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean, which is defined as below the 60-degree south latitude line.

"…The photographed shark was maintaining a depth of around 500 meters (1,640 feet) along a seabed that sloped into much deeper water. The shark maintained that depth because that was the warmest layer of several water layers stacked upon each other to the surface, Jamieson said.

"The Antarctic Ocean is heavily layered, or stratified, to a depth of around 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) because of conflicting properties including colder, denser water from below not readily mixing with fresh water running off melting ice from above.

…

"A skate appears in frame…. The skate, a shark relative that looks like a stingray, was no surprise since scientists already knew their range extended that far south."

https://apnews.com/article/australia-antarctic-sleeper-shark-38e8c18f0dc23b3cda4970bf2474fbaf