Elusive prickly sharks spotted gathering at underwater mountain off Panama -- but why remains a mystery
By Melissa Hobson published 2 hours ago
Researchers have spotted an atypical gathering of rare prickly sharks around a seamount off Panama.
Cordillera de Coiba, Pacific Panama. (Image credit: Cavan Images via Getty Images)
Rarely-seen deep-sea sharks have been spotted mysteriously gathering off a seamount near Panama — the first time the species has ever been documented in the area.
In a study published March 8 in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists confirmed the "atypical" gathering of 12 prickly sharks (Echinorhinus cookei) in the Cordillera de Coiba, Pacific Panama — a 26,000-square-mile (68,000 square kilometers) offshore marine protected area that includes nine mountain ranges, 24 seamounts and a 15,568-foot-deep (4,745 meters) trench.
The elusive prickly sharks, which have bodies covered by thorny, modified teeth, grow up to to 13 feet (4 m) long and may inhabit depths of up to 3,280 feet (1,000 m). "They prefer to be in deeper waters," which makes them difficult to observe, study author Héctor Guzmán, a marine ecologist at Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, told Live Science. Although information on the distribution of this species is scarce, they have been observed from Oregon and Japan in their northerly range down to Chile and New Zealand.
Scientists believe these gatherings, which took place in May 2022 between 495 and 1,146 feet (151 to 350 m) deep, were "deliberate." . Before this discovery, there had been no evidence that these sharks aggregated. The researchers aren't sure why the sharks were coming together, but it could be to do with feeding. "We saw juvenile hammerheads down there and those are easy targets for the prickly," Guzmán said. It could also be linked to reproduction. The team checked the sharks' claspers — modified pelvic fins used in reproduction — to confirm that both male and female sharks were at the gatherings.
Prickly shark, Echinorhinus cookei.Prickly shark, Echinorhinus cookei. (Image credit: NOAA Okeanos Explorer)
More:
https://www.livescience.com/animals/sharks/elusive-prickly-sharks-spotted-gathering-at-underwater-mountain-off-panama-but-why-remains-a-mystery