Rare shark caught on film...

[gerbick]

weird looking, but still cool....

TOKYO (Reuters) - 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.

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.

Frilled sharks, which feed on other sharks and sea creatures, are sometimes caught in the nets of trawlers but are rarely seen alive.

Read more here...

[yasunobu13]

Saw that earlier today, very ugly.

[Planet]

Wth!

[EVPohovich]

erm.....does anyone else think that looks like.....nevermind...

[aversion]

Caught on film and then promptly killed. Yay humanity.

[lefteyewilly]

this is one more reason why i think the waters on our own planet should be explored more than outerspace.

erm.....does anyone else think that looks like.....nevermind...

only if it was put in a vice

[The_Xell]

The local sushi restaurant had this to say...

It is common for deep sea dwelling creatures to come to the shallows if sick. Much like the incredible oarfish.

[MagnusVS]

I think it looked quite dead on the film. Strange creature...

[jAQUAN]

Sometimes currents can take them near the surface too. That was one of the speculations on this anyway. Wth is coming out of its gills?

[sk8Krog]

hair or something. i dunno, could be an inner lining that's usually kept in due to pressure.

Also anyone notice that it was never really level? It's tail was always kind of sunk below it's body like it didn't have the strength to level out.

[jAQUAN]

I just watched the video at gerbicks link. Sounds like this one was sick cause it died shortly after capture.

[hurricaneone]

Originally Posted by aversion

Caught on film and then promptly killed. Yay humanity.

We are such a horrible little species.