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[Gaborn]

A two-month fishing expedition to the Indian Ocean has turned up hundreds of strange deep-sea sharks, and several are likely new to science.

At least eight new species could be among the fishy haul, said Paul Clerkin, a shark ecology graduate student at California's Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.

Clerkin joined the commercial fishing venture in March and April of this year, in hopes that the vessel's massive trawling nets might pluck sharks from the deep sea. He was not disappointed.

"I tell people I have a ton of sharks, and they keep thinking I’m joking," Clerkin said. "It was an actual ton. I brought back 350 sharks."

The sharks were caught as bycatch from depths of approximately 6,500 feet (2,000 meters) from a region of undersea mountains, or seamounts, about a week's journey south of the island of Mauritius.

Day after day, the ship's nets brought up dozens of bizarre sharks from the deep — some dainty, some enormous, nearly all of them rare or entirely new species.

"They don’t look like the classic great whites you'll see on Shark Week," Clerkin said. "I think they're more interesting." Weird features abound: knifelike snouts, moonlike eyes and at least one shark with a curved, serrated spine emerging from its back.

Among the largest was a false catshark, a pointy-faced fish about 10 feet (3 m) long. Although it's a known species, it's a notoriously elusive one.

"It was exciting because I knew they were really rare, and the chance of seeing them was pretty small," Clerkin told OurAmazingPlanet. Yet after a while, he said, he began to think the species isn't nearly as rare as the literature suggests.

"We actually caught a lot — close to 35," he said, adding that it's likely humans simply haven't explored the parts of the ocean where false catsharks live. "I think it shows there's a lot we don't understand about sharks," he said.

Clerkin is taking between 80 and 90 measurements from each shark, a time-consuming task, and is also sending off genetic samples for comparison.

If any of the species are indeed new, Clerkin gets to name them. He said he'll likely name some of the sharks for his science mentors. "And maybe I'll name one after my mom," he said.

Story Here

I'm not going to post the full gallery but a couple highlights:

Newfound fish
Credit: Paul Clerkin.

It's likely this ghost shark is a new species. The sharks have large pectoral fins and live very deep in the ocean.

Strange fish
Credit: Paul Clerkin.

The trawler picked up more than 30 false catsharks, pictured above. These large, pointy-faced sharks are thought to be rare, but Clerkin said he's not so sure that's accurate. It's likely humans haven't often fished the deep waters where these sharks live.

There are many more images though, Gallery Here

 

[Baraka in the White House]

Looks like the Half-Life fish NOPE.

 

[Guevara]

Kind of a bummer we're finding these by massive deep sea trawling.

 

[Thai]

well, maybe he caught the last 35 of them. fuck humans. we suck so much. some species just get lost even just in the name of "science"

 

[Speevy]

That second picture is begging for a "SOON"

 

[Aguirre]

posing with dead animals that are potentially on the verge of extinction. fuck yea!

 

[OatmealMu]

Still waiting for spidersharks.

 

[DietRob]

That second picture is begging for a "SOON"

Don't turn GAF into reddit. We're close enough already.

 

[danwarb]

And now they're all dead. Well done.

 

[el retorno]

posing with dead animals that are potentially on the verge of extinction. fuck yea!

The animals are already dead. And don't people often pose to give a estimate of size?

 

[Fritz]

Deprivation of sun light makes species ugly, apparently.

 

[Buddha Beam]

I can't wait until we can grow in vitro meat so this shit stops. We've gotta be no more than 10 years away from that accomplishment, I'd think.

 

[Mudkips]

I saw "Fisting Expedition Finds Weird" and clicked.
Not what I expected, but I'm not disappointed.

The animals are already dead. And don't people often pose to give a estimate of size?

He's holding a tape measure in his right hand and he's not even using it for the picture.

 

[Clydefrog]

Deprivation of sun light makes species ugly, apparently.

just like gaffers

 

[el retorno]

He's holding a tape measure in his right hand and he's not even using it for the picture.

Obviously they don't do that when they record it but if their releasing the photo to the press putting a human makes it a lot easier to imagine its size than a tape measure saying 43 inches or something.