Svetlana Foote

Rare Baby Ghost Shark Discovered Off New Zealand Coast

Scientists hope the ‘very rare’ finding will fill in research gaps about the elusive species.

February 17, 2022

3,900 feet below the surface, scientists in New Zealand found a “mysterious creature.” They discovered the newly-hatched ghost shark on the Chatham Rise, a part of the ocean floor located off the eastern coast of the South Island.

Ghost sharks, or chimaera, are deep-water animals closely related to sharks and rays. These cartilaginous fish are also sometimes called ratfish, spook fish, and rabbitfish.

They lay eggs on the seafloor where the embryos feed off the egg yolk until they hatch. A scientist on the team who discovered the baby ghost shark said they were able to identify the shark as a baby because its stomach was still full of egg yolk.

"We don't actually know a lot about ghost sharks," said Brit Finucci, a fisheries scientist on the study. "What we do know mostly comes from adult specimens. So it's very rare and very uncommon to find juveniles of a lot of these species, so that's why I got quite excited."

Because ghost sharks make their home in very deep water, they are difficult to study. While the exact species of ghost shark isn’t known yet, scientists hope this discovery will help inform their knowledge of this mysterious creature.

Universal History Archive

A Mermaid's purse, a casing that surrounds the fertilized eggs of some sharks, skates, and chimaeras. They are made of collagen protein strands.

"We're hoping this will give us some more indication about the biology and ecology," said Finucci. Researchers are using this shark to account for biological differences between juvenile and adult members of the subclass.

Finucci added, "We're not sure what we're going to find, which is also quite exciting."

Next Up

There’s a Lot You Don’t Know About Sharks

But in the meantime, here are some fin-tastic facts you probably didn’t know about sharks.

Shark Week: The Podcast - How Did a Shark Encounter Survivor Become an Advocate for Their Protection?

Shark Week’s Luke Tipple welcomes professional photographer Mike Coots, who lost his leg to a tiger shark attack when he was only 18. But after his horrific injury, he came to love sharks, and became a lifelong advocate for their safety. Luke and Mike discuss his career, his love for photographing sharks, and how to positively approach the big life-changing moments that can happen to any of us.

Shark Week: The Podcast - How Shark Fishing Funds Human Trafficking

Luke Tipple is joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of the Outlaw Ocean Ian Urbina, who has dedicated his life to chronicling crime on the high seas. They discuss the state of our world’s oceans, how nearly 20% of your seafood was likely caught illegally, and the surprising link between modern slavery and the killing of sharks.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Why is Tagging Baby Great White Sharks So Important?

Luke Tipple speaks with Dr. Riley Elliott, a marine biologist from New Zealand who recently tagged baby great white sharks, which are rarely seen in the wild. They talk about how climate change is affecting shark pupping grounds, why fishers are wrong to think there are “too many sharks,” and about Dr. Elliott’s Great White App, which allows users to track great white sharks in the ocean.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Superstar Kesha Lifts the Gag Order on Saving Sharks

Pop superstar Kesha joins Shark Week’s Luke Tipple on the podcast to discuss her love of sharks, how her music funds her addiction to diving, and how you can find inner peace while under the water. And at the end, our researcher Sierra drops in to tell us that some sharks have teeth in their eyes.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Do Scientists Need to Kill Sharks?

Host Luke Tipple welcomes two guests to discuss how researchers can kill sharks in the name of science – and whether they need to at all. The first is Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, shark researcher and founder of Atlantic Shark Expeditions, and an expert on data-gathering in the field. He’s followed by explorer Fred Buyle, a world-record-breaking freediver whose innovative methods of shark tagging are explored. Plus, our researcher Sierra tells us about how a 50-year study changed our understanding of tiger sharks – and much of the work wasn’t even done by scientists.

Shark Week: The Podcast - How Many Sharks Are Yet to Be Discovered?

Luke Tipple is joined by Shark Week host and all-around adventurer Forrest Galante. They discuss his upcoming special Alien Sharks: South Africa, Forrest’s remarkable talent for finding creatures once believed to be extinct, and how many shark species may still be unknown. Then, our researcher Sierra stops by to tell us about the world’s most prehistoric shark.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Did Alien Tech Crash-Land into the Ocean?

Host Luke Tipple is joined this week by renowned Harvard professor, Dr. Avi Loeb, who recently led a deep-sea expedition to discover if evidence for advanced alien life crash-landed off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2014. They discuss the recent Congressional UFO hearings, how the last seventy years of research into extraterrestrial life has been potentially misguided, and the challenges of searching for tiny objects on the bottom of the ocean.

Shark Week: The Podcast - How Smart Are Sharks?

The discussion turns this week to sharks’ intelligence, and how it varies among species. Host Luke Tipple is joined by Dr. Tristan Guttridge, a behavioral ecologist and veteran of Shark Week whose research has tackled the social smarts, and even personalities, of different kinds of sharks. He sheds light on why we shouldn’t just think of them as dumb fish with rows of razor-sharp teeth. And at the end, our researcher Sierra Kehoe tells us about shark hypnosis.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Do You Have the Guts to Be a Shark Handler?

Host Luke Tipple welcomes a pair of divers – Leigh Cobb and Josh Eccles – who have taken their passion for sharks and turned it into a dangerous career. They explore what it takes to swim with sharks for a living, then go into common myths and facts on what to do in the open water – if you ever come face to face with a shark. Plus, our researcher Sierra drops by with a new species of shark discovered in the freezing depths of the ocean.

Related To: