Rare and unusual goblin shark caught by Australian fishermen

Rare and unusual goblin shark caught by Australian fisherman

An extremely rare and unusual shark has been caught by fishermen trawling off Australia.

The scary-looking goblin shark was accidentally caught by fishermen in Green Cape, south of Eden, on the NSW south coast, in a net with a load of crayfish last Thursday.

The shark is known as a "living dinosaur" and a "vampire shark" as they are usually found near the ocean floor at around 1,200 metres deep.

Fisherman Lochlainn Kelly, 22, pulled up the haul. According to Stuff.co.nz, he said he was "more excited than frightened", adding: "We just winched up the wire and brought the net on and the shark was in the net.

"I wasn't [freaked out], if anything I was pretty excited. I've seen photos of them before but I've never seen one before."

Pictures of the shark have been uploaded on Twitter.

Goblin shark known as 'living fossil' trawled from NSW south coast http://t.co/imII6onz6b pic.twitter.com/YopMO1N6ol
- smh.com.au (@smh) February 2, 2015

The fishermen took the shark to be examined by Michael McMaster and Alan Scrymgeour at the Wharf Aquarium.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Scrymgeour said the shark belonged to an "evolutionary dead end" being the only species in its genus, which stopped evolving around 70 million years ago, during the dinosaur era.

He added that the goblin shark was likely around three-years-old, based on its length of only 1.2 metres. He said adult goblin sharks are often around three to four metres long, reports the Inquisitr.

According to Wikipedia, the pink-skinned shark has a distinctive profile with an elongated, flattened snout, and highly protrusible jaws containing prominent nail-like teeth.

As noted by Scrymgeour, it is usually between three and four metres (10 and 13ft) long when mature, though it can grow considerably larger.

Adults are often found deeper in the ocean than juveniles.

Mr McMaster said while little was known about the species, they do know that they find their prey using hundreds of small sensors in the "nasal paddle", which detect small electrical fields produced by the crustaceans and cephalopods they feed on.

Wharf Aquarium will now send the fish to the Australian Museum in Sydney.