(ORDO NEWS) — Usually slow and half-blind polar sharks are found exclusively in the cold waters around the North and South Poles of the planet, but this time the exotic fish was spotted right at the equator, in the western Caribbean Sea.
Polar sharks ( Somniosus ) are perhaps one of the strangest representatives of these fish in general: they live only in the cold waters of the Arctic and outwardly resemble a strange cod, and not relatives of the graceful katran.
They are distinguished by their solid size (according to some sources, up to seven meters in length) and life span: the age of individual specimens can reach 250 or even 500 years.
Now another item has been added to the list of oddities of polar sharks, because one of these fish was found, it would seem, in an absolutely inappropriate place for it: thousands of kilometers from its native range, in the western part of the Caribbean Sea.
While tagging tiger sharks , Florida researcher Devanshi Kasana unexpectedly discovered a polar bear in tropical waters.
At first, Kasana did not even believe her eyes, considering the sluggish animal with pale blue eyes to be a strange specimen of a sixgill shark or another animal common to those waters, but a careful study of the photographs left no doubt: a representative of polar sharks caught the eye of people.
How did the strange fish end up so far south? Scientists suggest that this is due to the lack of data on this species and, possibly, a much wider range of these fish.
Since polar sharks are able to dive to a depth of up to a kilometer, where the water temperature remains low, they can even swim in warm seas – we just don’t see them, because they hardly rise to the surface.
Unfortunately, the encounter with the rare fish was too fleeting to attach a satellite tag to. Now, however, scientists are ready for this surprise and have stocked up with the necessary equipment so that the next collision does not miss the chance.
Together with the fishermen, they will continue to sail time after time, exploring the rich fauna of the western Caribbean, and perhaps one day they will meet polar fish again in tropical waters – one of the most unexpected sights on our planet.
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