Mysterious and Rarely Seen- The Megamouth Shark
They are not all scary - Megamouth
Think of sharks and you may be forgiven for having the image of a fierce predator with large, very sharp teeth. However, not all sharks fit this description. Meet megamouth. The first megamouth to become known to science was accidentally caught at night, in 1976, off the coast of Hawaii, when it became entangled in a trawl deployed by a US Navy research vessel. So far, there has only been one reported sighting of a megamouth shark in Australia, the one right in front of you, found in 1988 at Mandurah, and now displayed here in the Western Australian Maritime Museum.
The reason megamouth is displayed in this tank, with its view holes, is because this setting reflects the elusive nature of the species. It is believed they come close to the surface at night to feed but spend their days at great depths, up to 4600m down, thus spending most of their lives in darkness. This specimen’s cause of death was found to be blood poisoning caused by a bite from a reef shark. You can see the stitched-up wound on his, yes, he is male, right-hand side. Even though megamouth has tiny, needle-like teeth, I would still not like to have him take a bite out of me. What do you think?
The WA Museum’s specimen, Megamouth III, was the third specimen to be discovered. It was washed ashore at Mandurah some 50km south of Perth in August 1988.
Credit: WA Museum