Scientists Film Goblin Sharks Alive in Deep Ocean for First Time

For the first time in recorded history, scientists have captured footage of goblin sharks thriving in their natural deep-sea environment without having been caught on fishing lines. The groundbreaking observations, led by researchers at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, reveal one of the ocean’s most elusive and mysterious creatures living freely in the wild.

Every previous encounter with a live goblin shark came only after the animal had been accidentally caught by fishermen and hauled to the surface, where the creatures typically died within hours. These brief glimpses provided tantalizing clues about the species, but nothing compared to watching them hunt and move about in their native habitat. The new research, published in the Journal of Fish Biology, documents two separate sightings: one near a seamount close to Jarvis Island, and another along the slope of the Tonga Trench.

A 125-Million-Year-Old Mystery Revealed

Often called “living fossils,” goblin sharks represent the sole surviving members of a shark family that has existed for nearly 125 million years. Their alien-like appearance and extreme rarity have made them legendary among marine science enthusiasts and researchers alike. Yet until now, scientists studying them worked from a position of profound ignorance about their actual behavior and distribution in the wild.

Aaron Judah, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at UH Mānoa’s Deep-Sea Fish Ecology Lab, expressed genuine astonishment at the sightings. “Seeing the most iconic of all the deep-sea sharks alive and looking healthy in its natural habitat is a unique honor,” he said. But the real shock came from the depth at which one specimen was found: nearly 700 meters deeper than previously recorded for the species.

Rewriting the Geographic Record

Before these discoveries, goblin sharks were known only from limited regions off the western United States, Australia, and Japan in the Pacific Ocean, plus scattered areas in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The Central Pacific was thought to be outside their range entirely. That assumption has now been shattered.

The first sighting actually came from archived footage recorded in 2019 during an Ocean Exploration Trust expedition using the remotely operated vehicle Hercules. When Judah reviewed the footage in 2025, he was shocked to discover what colleagues at UH Mānoa’s Deep-Sea Animal Research Center had actually documented years earlier. The second encounter occurred more recently, in 2024, when scientists aboard the R/V Dagon filmed a goblin shark swimming freely near the Tonga Trench using baited camera equipment.

“The Goblin Shark is one of these deep-sea charismatic animals that I never thought we’d see alive,” said Alan Jamieson, a co-author who helped document the 2024 sighting. “And then to do so was amazing, but to then learn that colleagues in Hawai’i also saw one was just incredible.”

The Tonga Trench observation also established a new depth record for the entire order Lamniformes, the mackerel sharks, which includes the famous great white shark, basking shark, and mako shark. This single finding reshapes our understanding of where these apex predators can survive.

Why This Matters Beyond the Headlines

These discoveries underscore a critical reality: natural history research remains essential, particularly in the deep ocean where thousands of species remain poorly documented. “It is really important that we still perform natural history work,” Judah emphasized. “New discoveries like this demonstrate that there is still so much to explore in our deep ocean home.”

The practical implications are significant. With goblin sharks now confirmed in the Central Pacific, the species can be included in regional management plans and national biodiversity lists for the first time. Before this research, governments and conservation bodies literally did not know these creatures inhabited their waters.

The deep ocean continues to hide its secrets, revealing them only to researchers patient enough to watch and listen. Every archived video, every baited camera, every careful observation adds another piece to the puzzle of our planetary home.

Materials provided by University of Hawaii at Manoa