By Tim Binnall
Marine scientists operating off the coast of New Zealand's South Island made a rather remarkable discovery in the form of an incredibly rare baby ghost shark that was only a few days old. According to a press release, the wondrous catch was made by experts from the country's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) as they were performing a survey of fish, known as hoki, living in an area of ocean known as the Chatham Rise. Trawling at a depth of around 3,700 feet, they inadvertently netted the tiny creature which boasts a somewhat transparent body and constitutes something of a deep sea treasure.
The diminutive specimen, they quickly determined, was a baby ghost shark that had likely just been born a few days earlier. Marveling that "it's quite astonishing," NIWA fisheries scientist Dr Brit Finucci explained that "you can tell this ghost shark recently hatched because it has a full belly of egg yolk," which is what provides the embryonic creatures with sustenance before they burst forth into the world. The researcher went on to describe the newborn ghost shark, known as a neonyte, as a particularly "rare and exciting find" since the elusive animal is almost always observed in its adult form.
That makes the discovery particularly interesting to scientists, Finucci said, since "juveniles and adults can have different dietary and habitat requirements" and, in turn, "finding this ghost shark will help us better understand the biology and ecology of this mysterious group of deep-water fish." The researchers now hope to perform tests on the neonyte in order to determine its specific species. In a testament to just how rare ghost sharks are, one species of the creature was only captured on film for the first time back in 2016 when an underwater research vehicle operating off the coast of California and Hawaii inadvertently stumbled upon the "pointy-nosed blue chimaera" and wound up with a vivid video of the bizarre denizen of the deep.