For the first time, scientists have documented live goblin sharks (Mitsukurina owstoni) thriving in their natural deep-ocean environment, according to research published in the Journal of Fish Biology by a team from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.
A 125-Million-Year-Old Mystery
Often described as "living fossils," goblin sharks are the sole surviving members of a shark family dating back nearly 125 million years. Until now, every confirmed observation of a live goblin shark came only after the animal had been accidentally caught on a fishing line and brought to the surface — where it typically died soon afterward.
The new research reports two healthy goblin sharks observed in the wild. One was seen near a seamount close to Jarvis Island in the Central Pacific. The other was recorded along the slope of the Tonga Trench at a depth of nearly 700 meters deeper than the species was ever known to live — establishing a new depth record for the entire order of Lamniformes, which includes great white sharks, basking sharks, and mako sharks.
Found in Archived Footage
The first observation came to light after lead author Aaron Judah, a doctoral candidate at UH Mānoa, spoke with colleagues who mentioned a possible goblin shark recorded during a 2019 Ocean Exploration Trust expedition aboard the E/V Nautilus. After reviewing archived video footage from the remotely operated vehicle Hercules, Judah confirmed the sighting.
The second encounter occurred during a 2024 expedition to the Tonga Trench aboard the R/V Dagon, part of the Inkfish Open Ocean Expedition led by scientists from the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Center. A baited camera mounted on a bottom lander captured the rare footage.
Expanding Known Range Significantly
Before these discoveries, goblin sharks were known only from relatively limited regions off the western United States, Australia, and Japan in the Pacific Ocean, along with small areas of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The two new sightings from the Central Pacific vastly expand the species' known range.
"Given the newly-expanded geographic range of the goblin shark, this species can be included in regional management and a nation's biodiversity list, whereas beforehand we didn't know it was even there," said Judah.
Why It Matters
The findings demonstrate that traditional natural history research remains essential in the deep ocean, where many species are still poorly understood. "New discoveries like this demonstrate that there is still so much to explore in our deep ocean home," Judah emphasized.
