A rarely sighted frilled shark has turned up in waters off south-eastern Australia. The species, which dates back 80 million years, is known as the ‘living fossil’.
It was caught on a fishing trawler in waters near Lakes Entrance in the Victoria’s Gippsland region.
Simon Boag, from the South East Trawl Fishing Association, said it was the first time in living memory that a frilled shark had been sighted.
“We couldn’t find a fisherman who had ever seen one before,” he said.
Two-metre-long creature has a head and body which resembles an eel, but its tail is like that of a shark.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) confirmed that the fist was a frilled shark, and while the species is known to the scientific community, it is almost unknown to local fishermen.
“It has 300 teeth over 25 rows, so once you’re in that mouth, you’re not coming out,” Boag said.
The species has been found as deep as 1,500 metres, but generally it lives in waters shallower than 1,200 metres. The one that Boag caught was 700 metres deep.
