It’s said that we know more about the surface of the moon than the depths of our own ocean, and a recent video only confirmed that the dark depths can seem just as alien as things outside our own planet.
The unsettling video was posted to the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre’s Instagram account on Sept. 30.
Scientists were exploring the Pacific Ocean’s Tonga Trench, the second-deepest in the world after the Marianas Trench, when an otherworldly creature appeared in frame.
The massive animal can be seen eating a bait fish tied in front of the camera.
This oceanic beast, although otherworldly, is not quite an unidentified leviathan.
The research center identified the fish as a Pacific sleeper shark, saying they are “slow-moving giants that roam the cold, dark depths” of the ocean.
“Perfectly adapted to survive the pressure and temperature, Pacific sleeper sharks feed on a variety of marine life — fish, squid, octopus, crabs, and prawns,” the post read.
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“Their average mature size is around 3.6 metres, which is what we estimate this beauty to be.”
While not exactly the shark from “Jaws”, the appearance of this fish alone is enough to disturb most people. Those already wary of the ocean would understandably be even more unsettled.
It doesn’t appear that this species has ever been blamed for any attack on a human.
The Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Centre previously visited the Tonga Trench during a set of dives between 2018 and 2019.
According to the organization, scientists diving those years visited the deepest point of all five of the world’s oceans. In nearly every trench, they found a strange shrimp-like crustacean. The unexpected repeat appearance of the amphipod Bathycallisoma schellenbergi caused the tiny animal to become the expedition’s unofficial mascot.
“It was strange because traditional thought was that these trenches are separate from each other and operate as isolated ‘islands’ with their own distinct fauna,” Professor Alan Jamieson said in the research center’s post.
“It would be like the same species of butterfly being found on the slopes of the Rockies, Andes, Himalayas and Alps”
Scientists found some evidence of interbreeding between at least two trenches, hinting the little creature could have braved the journey in the open ocean.
The surface of the moon may be fully mapped, but we are far from understanding the depths of what remains undiscovered in our own oceans.
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