A bit of the background from Zee News...
A species of shark rarely seen alive because its natural habitat is 600 meters (2,000 ft) or more under the sea was captured on film by staff at a Japanese Marine Park this week.For the sake of science, its interesting to capture such interesting footage. I am horrified of sharks anyway, and this one, in particular, looks scary as hell. But I can't help but wonder if its eventual capture lead to its demise....
The Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo, was alerted by a fisherman at a nearby port on Sunday that he had spotted an odd-looking eel-like creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth.
Marine park staff caught the 1.6 meter (5 ft) long creature, which they identified as a female frilled shark, sometimes referred to as a "living fossil" because it is a primitive species that has changed little since prehistoric times.
The shark appeared to be in poor condition when park staff moved it to a seawater pool where they filmed it swimming and opening its jaws.
"We believe moving pictures of a live specimen are extremely rare," said an official at the park. "They live between 600 and 1,000 meters under the water, which is deeper than humans can go."
"We think it may have come close to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters," the official said.
The shark died a few hours after being caught.
2 comments:
That is one awesome looking shark. I think capturing it might have sped to it's demise. It's a pity it died. I was contemplating taking a train to Tokyo to see it.
Yeah - its too bad right? It would have been insane if you got the chance to go and look at it...
one of those once in a lifetime things....
what are they doing with the carcass now? Are they gonna stuff it and put it up somewhere?
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