Deep sea camera captures footage of rare shark at the bottom of the ocean for first time
A deep sea camera has captured footage of a rare shark which has been photographed for the first time.
The shark in question is not a Jaws style massive beast, but a type of catshark called a deep-sea painted swellshark.
Very little is known of the creature, with researchers only becoming aware of the shark due to specimens showing up in fish markets in Lombok and Bali in Indonesia.
For the first time however, a camera has managed to pick up footage of it.
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The footage was taken during a survey of Timor-Leste’s deep sea environment, a South-East Asian nation that takes up half the island of Timor.
This discovery came as researchers used ‘low cost deep sea cameras’ which picked up the rare footage of the shark, videoed for the first time ever.
Swellsharks are given their name for one bizarre characteristic – they are able to swallow water and ‘swell’ to twice their size when threatened.
Researchers published a scientific paper on their discovery where they reveal that the shark was discovered over half a kilometre down, at depths of 570 and 536 metres at each site they were spotted.
By discovering the sharks off the coast of Timor researchers have also stated that this has increased the potential known range of the species by a massive 1,100 kilometres.
Researchers wrote in their findings: “The discovery of the painted swellshark off Timor-Leste highlights the importance of modern, cost-effective technologies to survey the deep sea and locate these lost sharks before they vanish.”
They also noted that: “At each site, the shark returned to the camera several times, and in the second instance the female shark interacted with the bait and made several passes in front of the camera.”
Speaking to Mongabay via email, a marine biologist Louw Claassens said of the discovery: “Nothing is known about the behaviour of this species.”
She went on to state that the discovery of the sharks in fish markets led to ‘very little ecological information’.
The marine biologist finally told the site: “Here, we could observe this species in the wild… we can now say it does occur to depths of up to 570 meters.
“It is difficult and expensive to study these types of deepwater sharks. Having access to these low-cost camera systems is really a game changer.”
The low-cost cameras provide 4K high-resolution video to depths of 6,000 metres, with researchers saying they were developed in the National Geographic Society Exploration Technology Lab.
The video was posted to Instagram by a shark expert, with many thrilled with the discovery.
One comment read: "That is VERY cool," whilst another called the swellshark a 'beautiful creature'.
Michael Slavin