GHOST sharks were around long before dinosaurs – but only recently have scientists been able to study them.
Now a baby Chimaera has been found 1200m off the coast of New Zealand creating new possibilities to learn more about the mysterious ocean creature.
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What is a deep sea ghost shark?
The ghost shark is given its nickname because of its dead-eyed glaze as well as their winged fins.
Its real name is a chimaera.
Unlike great whites and hammerheads, chimaeras don’t have hundreds of sharp teeth.
They target target much smaller prey instead – crushing them using the mineral plates they have instead of teeth.
They live in cold deep water around New Zealand and eastern Australia but can be found elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
Males have a retractable penis which pops in and out of its forehead, resembling “a spiked club at the end of a stalk”.
How big are they?
Ghost sharks can grow up to 150 cm (4.9 ft) in length and can live for up to 30 years.
Scientists have been finding specimens of the strange since the 1960s.
It wasn’t until experts recently searched through shelves of “dead pickled fish” that the Eastern Pacific black Ghost shark was recognised as its own new species.
The ghost shark is said to use its wing-like fins to “fly” through its dark habitat.
Where does the blue chimaera live?
An extremely rare baby chimaera was found at a shallow fishing ground off New Zealand’s east coast during a recent ocean-floor survey.
Kiwi scientists the discovered a newly-hatched ghost shark at a depth of 1,200m on the Chatham Rise.
Fisheries scientist Brit Finucci, who was part of the team which made the discovery, said finding the ghost shark will allow better understanding around the biology and ecology of the fish.
She said: “It’s quite astonishing. Most deep-water ghost sharks are known adult specimens; neonates are infrequently reported so we know very little about them.”
Another ghost shark was captured on camera by divers trawling 67,000 foot down in the depths of the pitch-black ocean off California and Hawaii in 2016.
Dave Ebert, program director for the Pacific Shark Research Center at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories said the divers stumbled on the shark by accident.
He said: “It’s almost a little comical.
“It would come up and bounce its nose off the lens and swim around and come back.”
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California shared the video of the fish in their natural habitat with National Geographic.
