Two goblin sharks have been filmed alive in their natural deep-sea habitat, marking the first published observations of the species in the wild. The sightings, made near Jarvis Island and the Tonga Trench, are giving scientists a rare look at one of the ocean’s most mysterious sharks while expanding its known range across the Pacific.
The goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) is one of those animals that seems almost unreal. With its elongated snout and ancient lineage, it has earned the nickname “living fossil.” Yet despite its fame among marine enthusiasts, very little is known about how it lives in the deep ocean.
Until now, live goblin sharks had only been seen after being caught by fishermen and brought to the surface. According to a study published in the Journal of Fish Biology, researchers have now documented healthy ones swimming in their natural environment.
Two Remarkable Sightings In The Pacific
The first shark was recorded near a seamount northwest of Jarvis Island, while the second was spotted on the slope of the Tonga Trench. Both sightings took place in the central Pacific, an area where the species had never been documented before.
For lead author Aaron Judah, a doctoral candidate at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, the discovery was something special.
“Seeing the most iconic of all the deep-sea sharks alive and looking healthy in its natural habitat is a unique honor,” he said.
The Tonga Trench encounter turned out to be especially significant. As he explained, the shark was found nearly 700 meters deeper than the species had ever been recorded before. The observation also pushed the depth record for the entire order of Lamniformes, the group that includes white sharks, basking sharks and mako sharks.
For a species that has remained largely out of sight for so long, even a handful of observations can reshape what scientists know about its habitat.
An Important Discovery Hiding In Old Footage
One of the most surprising aspects of the study is that one of the sharks was not discovered during a new expedition. Instead, it was found in archived video collected years earlier.
In 2025, colleagues at the Deep-Sea Animal Research Center (DARC) told Judah about a possible goblin shark that appeared in footage from a 2019 expedition aboard the E/V Nautilus. The mission explored deep-sea ecosystems around Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll and Jarvis Island.
The footage had been recorded by the remotely operated vehicle Hercules and stored in a public archive. After reviewing the videos, Judah confirmed that the animal was indeed a goblin shark.
“I was shocked to hear this because this species was not known to be in the Central Pacific,” he said.
A Wider Range Than Anyone Realized
The second sighting came during a 2024 expedition to the Tonga Trench aboard the R/V Dagon as part of the Inkfish Open Ocean Expedition. Scientists from the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Center captured footage of the shark using a baited camera attached to a bottom lander.
As study co-author Alan Jamieson explained, the encounter was something he never expected to witness.
“The Goblin Shark is one of these deep-sea charismatic animals that I never thought we’d see alive, and then to do so was amazing, but to then learn that colleagues in Hawai‘i also saw one was just incredible,” he noted.
Before these observations, goblin sharks were known from relatively small areas off Japan, Australia and the western United States, along with scattered records in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. As explained in the latest research, the two new sightings significantly extend the species’ known geographic range into the central Pacific.
Judah also noted that a species cannot be considered in regional biodiversity records or management plans if its presence is unknown.
“New discoveries like this demonstrate that there is still so much to explore in our deep-ocean home,” Judah said.
