1st Time Caught on Film: A Goblin Shark!

The ocean has many mysteries and there are a lot of creatures I'm sure we haven't even discovered yet. One of the most elusive that has been discovered is called the "Goblin Shark." The goblin shark is a rare species of deep-sea shark. Sometimes called a "living fossil", it is the only extant representative of the family Mitsukurinidae, a lineage some 125 million years old. Recently some explorers finally captured a photograph of this shark!

(Photo: Researchers have captured footage of two goblin sharks, one in the Tonga Trench (pictured) and another near Jarvis Island. (Image credit: Minderoo-University of Western Australia Deep-Sea Research Center and Inkfish)

 

Elusive goblin shark captured on camera for the first time 

Researchers have filmed goblin sharks in the deep sea for the first time. Until now, these sharks had been seen alive only after being hauled up to the surface with fishing lines.

By Sascha Pare,LIVE SCIENCE, June 14, 2026

For the first time ever, scientists have captured deep-sea footage of the elusive goblin shark, extending its known range far into the Central Pacific and down to nearly 6,560 feet (2,000 meters) below the water's surface.

The goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) is a deepwater shark with an elongated snout and protrusible jaws that shoot out to snatch prey. The species, which has been around for about 125 million years, is described as a "living fossil." Until now, it had been seen alive only briefly, when it got hooked on fishing lines and hauled to the surface, according to a new study.

In the new footage, researchers documented two goblin shark sightings — one near Jarvis Island in the South Central Pacific Ocean and another at the Tonga Trench in the Southwest Pacific. Researchers suspect that goblin sharks live throughout the planet's oceans, as they have been caught in many different regions, but the specimen record is very sparse. So far, goblin sharks have been found only in narrow regions in the Atlantic and Indian oceans, as well as in small patches off the western U.S., Australia, Japan and Taiwan.

"The goblin shark is a deep-sea charismatic animal, and I never thought we'd see one alive," study co-author Alan Jamieson, the director of the Minderoo-University of Western Australia Deep-Sea Research Centre, said in a statement.

Not only was it fascinating to capture footage of goblin sharks in their natural habitat for the first time, but the specimen in the Tonga Trench was found swimming 2,300 feet (700 m) deeper than any other goblin shark, at around 6,550 feet (1,997 m), Jamieson said.