Researchers shocked after catching giant creature on camera where it’s never been seen: ‘These things are tanks’

Researchers were awestruck after a camera captured what could be the first-ever sighting of a shark moseying through Antarctica’s waters.

The Associated Press reported on the sleeper shark caught on a camera stationed off the South Shetland Islands, where many experts believed sharks dared not venture.

“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,” researcher Alan Jamieson said.

The Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre operates the camera that filmed the shark taking its time to pass through the 1,600-feet deep water. Also on display in the video is a skate — a shark relative that resembles a stingray — which didn’t seem surprised by the shark’s presence.

That can’t be said for researchers. The shark’s existence in the water challenged conventional wisdom about Antarctic marine life. Based on the footage, scientists estimated it to be as big as 13 feet long.

“It’s a hunk of a shark,” Jamieson said. “These things are tanks.”

Part of why the sighting was unexpected is the tough local conditions. Water temperatures where the shark was swimming were near 34 degrees Fahrenheit, and Jamieson speculated that the positioning by the shark was intentional to stay in the warmest layer of the ocean available.

Why the shark was there at all isn’t known. Warming ocean temperatures could be sending more sharks to colder waters in the Southern Hemisphere. That sort of movement would mimic other shifts by fellow marine life, such as whales.

These changes to their conditions can imperil marine species, but at this stage, it’s impossible to tell how many sleeper sharks there are in the Antarctic Ocean.

That’s because the cold temperatures make observing marine life very difficult. Underwater cameras can only operate between December and February, which highlights how much there is to learn with more observation.

Exploring these remote areas can lead to significant findings that improve our understanding and management of marine life. Until some of the complications around positioning cameras in sub-freezing conditions can be addressed, researchers will have to hope for more perfectly timed scenarios like this one.

The gap in camera coverage translates to a gap in knowledge.

“The other 75% of the year, no one’s looking at all,” Jamieson told the AP. “And so this is why, I think, we occasionally come across these surprises.”

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