The goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) is one of the least known sharks to humans, and least observed in open water. Most of the specimens studied have accidentally fallen from nets that reach the depths (1,400 meters, on average) in which this species inhabits, as occurred in 1898 off the coast of Japan, when the first of them was captured, and as has now occurred in the territorial waters of Taiwan with what could be the largest and heaviest of the goblin sharks described to date.
The Ocean Artistic Museum has published some details of the discovery on its Facebook page.
The story of the accidental capture in a fishing action and the acquisition of the body by this scientific entity has been described in LiveScience. “Fishermen caught a record-breaking 800kg goblin shark with six pups off Taiwan’s northeast coast, but have come under fire for using bottom trawling to catch a rare ‘living fossil’,” the publication said.
The information of the capture and salvage of the body was first released on June 13 by Taiwan’s Ocean Art Museum, after learning that fishermen operating in Nanfang’ao port in Su’ao Township of Taiwan County Yilan, they had caught a large goblin shark.
After going to the port, museum technicians verified that the goblin shark was 4.7 meters long, making it the largest specimen captured in Taiwanese waters. According to the museum, the fishermen had been trawling when they accidentally caught the shark and discovered it was a female with six pups.
According to the museum, the fishermen originally wanted to sell the goblin shark to a restaurant for food. However, the museum was able to persuade them to sell the shark to the facility for educational purposes and it will go on display in the future.
Following news of the incident, several conservation groups criticized fishermen using bottom trawls and said the practice should be banned given the impact on such rare species.
