Goblin shark, rare deep-sea species, caught off US coast

Fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico were shocked when they pulled up a shrimp net and discovered they had caught a rare and slightly terrifying goblin shark.

The mysterious sharks can live at depths of over 1,300 meters.

On April 19, the captain of the shrimp boat Carl Moore and his crew set nets off the west coast of Key West, Florida, in search of Royal Red shrimp. But when the net rose to the surface, the fishermen realized they had caught a goblin shark.

Goblin sharks are a rare and largely mysterious species that can live at depths of over 1,300 meters, often near sheer cliffs on continental shelves and in deep-water canyons. Most sightings have been made by Japanese crews fishing in the cold, deep waters of and around Japan’s islands.

In 2003, after a massive deep-sea earthquake shook the ocean floor near Taiwan, more than 100 goblin sharks were pulled from the depths by fishermen in just a few days. And last year,

Moore’s capture, which he estimated to be about 18 feet (5.5 meters) long, is only the second goblin shark to be recorded in the Gulf of Mexico. The first one occurred more than 10 years ago and was so unexpected that a scientific paper was published detailing the discovery.

Moore immediately released the shark after freeing it from the net and reported the capture to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) last week after returning to shore from a week-long fishing expedition.

“I didn’t even know what it was. I didn’t get the tape measure out because that thing has nasty teeth – they could do some damage,” Moore told the Houston Chronicle, the newspaper that first reported the unusual catch.

NOAA posted a statement on its Facebook page last week saying fisheries biologists are working with Moore to obtain as much information as possible about the specimen caught in April.