A “true nightmare” with a “diabolical smile”, which gives “major chills”. These were the comments from netizens under the publication Facebook of the fisherman Trapman Bermagui. On September 12, 2022, the latter published on social networks his last catch, with a somewhat peculiar appearance: a strange shark with bulging eyes, rough skin, a large pointed muzzle and an unsettling, human-like smile. Loot brought up from the depths, around 650 meters below sea level, off the coast of New South Wales, Australia.
Ferocious shark, goblin shark or sagre?
The creature’s unusual features quickly caught the attention of users. Curious, surprised or terrified by the specimen, they began to speculate on the species to which it would belong – because as a reminder, there are almost 530 recorded species of sharks around the world. The most common assumption was that of ferocious shark (Isistius of Brazil), but others have bet on the goblin shark or goblin shark (Mitsukurina Owstoni) or a member of the sagre family (Etmopteridae). Different experts have also looked into photography… and don’t seem to agree.
Questioned by our colleagues from Newsweekmarine biologist Dean Grubbs, from Florida State University (USA), believes that it might be a spiny dogfish (Centroscymnus owstonii), a sleeper shark of the same family (the Somniosidae) that the greenland shark (Dreamy microcephalus) — though smaller. Christopher Lowe, director of the shark laboratory at California State University, is banking on a lichen shark (Dalatias licha), evolving in waters off Australia. But he is “hard to say for sure without being able to see the entire specimen”he says.
A species of shark still undetermined
Brit Finucci, a deep-sea shark specialist at New Zealand’s National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) interviewed by Live Sciencethe specimen is probably a shark of the family of Centrophorus, perhaps a “gulper shark” (“hunting shark” in English, “requin chagrin” in French). Species in this group have long been the target of overfishing for their liver oil, in the same region of New South Wales where the shark with the disturbing smile was found. So much so that some are now threatened and protected in Australia.
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Finally, it is also possible that the recently fished creature belongs to a species never observed or identified before: “We are constantly discovering new species of deep-sea sharks and many look very similar”confirms Christopher Lowe to Newsweek. In any case, as one of the commentators under the Facebook post reminds us, the discovery of this prehistoric looking shark reminds that “the depths of the sea seem like a whole other planet”.
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