A 15-foot megamouth shark was caught in fishing nets in the Philippines this week, a surprising sight since the sharks are rare.
Christopher Bird, a doctoral student from England’s University of Southampton, tweeted a photo of the shark, which has a particularly wide mouth as its name would imply, and said it seems to have been caught in fishing nets.
On his blog about sharks, Bird said it was found in Barangay Marigondon, Philippines.
Little is known about the megamouth, but Bird compiled what evidence there is of the creature’s habits on his blog. Eighty-five percent of the shark’s sightings have been in the Pacific Ocean. Unusually, only smaller sharks or large ones, like this 15-footer, have been seen, leaving scientists puzzled as to where the shark hangs out most of the time, he said.
“We rarely observe any medium-sized individuals. They are just not being seen! We either see sharks less than 2.5m (8 feet) or greater than 4m (13 feet). We still do not know where a large proportion of these sharks spend their time,” Bird wrote. “Are they in deeper waters or maybe in oceanic, non-fishing grounds? We still don’t know and still have no idea!”
The Marine Wildlife Watch of Philippines reported that the last megamouth discovered in the same area was “unfortunately” eaten by locals.
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