Scientists have captured the first ever footage of a live goblin shark in its natural deep-sea habitat, more than a century after the species was first discovered, in a breakthrough that has dramatically expanded scientists’ understanding of where the elusive predator lives.
The footage was captured using a remote baited camera in the South Pacific Ocean’s Tonga Trench, one of the deepest parts of the sea, in 2024, according to a study published last month. Until now, goblin sharks had only ever been seen when accidentally caught by fishermen.
“The Goblin Shark is one of these deep-sea charismatic animals that I never thought we’d see alive, and then to do so was amazing, but to then learn that colleagues in Hawaii also saw one was just incredible,” said Alan Jamieson, a marine biologist and director at the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Center, in a press statement released earlier this week.
The Tonga Trench sighting was not the only one. Researchers later realised that footage recorded in 2019 by the underwater research vessel M/V Nautilus, near Jarvis Island and the Palmyra Atoll in the central Pacific — thousands of miles from Tonga — had also captured a goblin shark, though this was not recognised at the time. Aaron Judah, a researcher at the University of Hawaii’s Department of Oceanography, said: “Seeing the most iconic of all the deep-sea sharks alive and looking healthy in its natural habitat is a unique honour. I was also very surprised about how deep this species was found. The observation from the slope of the Tonga Trench is nearly 700 meters deeper than this species was known to live.”
Together, the two sightings represent a significant leap forward in understanding the species. The central Pacific footage expanded the known geographical range of the goblin shark considerably, while the Tonga Trench encounter broke the previous depth record for the species by 108 metres.
The goblin shark is a striking and unusual creature, averaging around 12 feet in length, with an almost gelatinous body, an oversized protruding snout and razor-like teeth. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, it is a living fossil — the sole surviving member of a family lineage that dates back 125 million years.
With direct evidence of the species now confirmed in these deep-sea zones, goblin sharks can finally be incorporated into official regional biodiversity lists and wildlife management plans for the areas where they were filmed. “New discoveries like this demonstrate that there is still so much to explore in our deep ocean home,” Judah said. “Beforehand we didn’t know it was even there!”
