Rarely-Seen Megamouth Shark Killed—And Sold for Just $17

An extremely rare species of shark has been sold for next to nothing after being captured and killed off the coast of Africa.

The megamouth shark, which has only been spotted less than 300 times in history, was found in a market in Zanzibar in Tanzania, where it was sold for the equivalent of $17, according to a new paper in the journal Zootaxa.

This marks only the sixth time ever that a megamouth shark has been spotted off the African coast.

Megamouth sharks were first discovered in 1976 when a specimen was accidentally caught by a U.S. Navy research vessel off the coast of Hawaii. Since then, only around 280 sightings have been recorded around the globe.

Very little is known about this shark due to its elusive nature, with it being thought to live at depths of up to 15,000 feet under the ocean. They are named for their large mouths, and are filter feeders, using their large mouths to gulp in water and filter out plankton, small fish, and jellyfish. They have numerous tiny teeth arranged in a mesh-like pattern that helps in filtering their prey.

"There have been approximately 300 records, at least, of the Megamouth since the first one was caught off Hawaii in 1976. It was not formally described until 1983. Taiwan has had about 200 records alone. It is one of the hotspots for Megamouth," shark expert David Ebert told Newsweek.

"It is hard to estimate the number of these sharks in the world since they occur globally in most oceans, but especially off Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Southern California, Ecuador and Peru, among other hotspot locations."

They are believed to have a wide distribution, but their rare nature makes it difficult to study their habitat preferences. These sharks are thought to undertake vertical migrations, moving up toward the surface at night to feed on plankton and descending to deeper waters during the day.

"This megamouth shark was caught by an artisanal fishing vessel in Zanzibar's waters, and then landed at a beach on Pemba Island. The shark was sold for about 43,000 Tanzanian shillings (US$17), probably for consumption in the local communities," Rhett H. Bennett, a marine biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, wrote in a Conversation article about the discovery.

"It was sad to see the photos of the dead animal laid out on the beach, but definitely an important new record. This was only the sixth megamouth ever seen in Africa, with one previous sighting each in South Africa, Gabon, Liberia, Senegal and Mauritania between 1995 and 2020."

This finding comes only a few months after the first ever pregnant megamouth shark was found washed up in the Philippines in December 2023, with its unborn pups having been found alongside it on the beach. This confirmed for the first time that megamouth sharks give birth to live young rather than laying eggs.

Due to their rarity and the limited data available, megamouth sharks were initially classified as data deficient by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), but since they have been spotted all over the world, they don't appear to live in habitats that are threatened by fishing vessels.

"They are classified as Least Concern due to the fact that the species is found around the world and their ecology makes them hard to encounter and thus assess. In reality, we don't know their population trends, so this will likely be reassessed with more data available," Zachary Skelton, a researcher at the NOAA Fisheries Resources Division, told Newsweek.

This finding will help researchers get a broader picture of the megamouth's lifestyle and habitat.

"In time, if multiple records of megamouths occurred in the same place, scientists might want to focus some dedicated research effort in that area. However, for our research programme in east Africa, we do not have the resources to pursue that in detail. We would be spending hours and hours in the ocean and might never find another megamouth. This is why it is important to share this kind of information, in order to contribute additional pieces to the megamouth puzzle," he said.

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Update 3/7/24, 1:39 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from David Ebert and Zachary Skelton.