Strange-looking goblin shark caught by fisherman in Taiwan. Meet the record holder

A fisherman off the coast of Taiwan has made a surprising and somewhat frightening catch: a massive pregnant wolf shark. The record-breaking shark was nearly sold to a restaurant.

The fisherman caught the strange-looking shark while trawling off the coast of Suao, the Taiwan Ocean Art Museum said in a Facebook post on June 13. The accidental catch was identified as a goblin shark.

Goblin sharks are a little-known and rarely seen species of shark, named for their “long, stunted” teeth, according to Oceana. The sharks have a distinctive head shape with a prominent forehead. Most of a goblin shark’s life is spent in the murky depths.

The shark caught near Su’ao was the largest goblin shark ever caught in Taiwan, the museum said.

The massive female shark weighed about 1,763 pounds and measured about 15.4 feet in length, Taiwan News and Liberty Times Net reported.

Video footage from the Formosa TV News Network showed the massive shark being moved with a forklift and placed in the bed of a truck.

The goblin shark was pregnant with six babies, the museum said in a Facebook post June 15. The pups were between 4 and 4 feet long and each weighed about 8 pounds.

The babies already had teeth, leading museum officials to conclude that they were very close to being born. Video footage shows the baby sharks lying on a platform.

Goblin sharks grow in eggs and hatch inside the mother before a live birth, according to Fishes of Australia.

The goblin shark was nearly sold to a restaurant for consumption, but the Taiwan Ocean Art Museum stepped in, museum officials said. The shark will be preserved, studied and eventually put on display.

Su’ao Township, also spelled Su-au Township, is located along the northeastern coast of Taiwan and approximately 45 miles southeast of Taipei.

Facebook Translate and Baidu Translate were used to translate the posts of the Taiwan Ocean Art Museum. Google Translate and Baidu Translate were used to translate the YouTube video of Formosa TV News Network and the article of Liberty Times Net.

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