British tourist captures footage of rare megamouth shark

British tourist captures footage of rare megamouth shark
British tourist captures footage of rare megamouth shark


A British diver has managed to capture on camera the moment she spotted an incredibly rare megamouth shark in Indonesia.

Diver Penny Bielich was swimming off the coast of Komodo Island while exploring the string of islands known as Gili Lawa Laut, a spot popular with holidaymakers, when the shark swam by.

See also: Man grabs live shark on beach with bare hands

See also: Large shark spotted in Cornwall

The megamouth shark was first discovered in Oahu in 1976. According to the National Geographic, the Florida Museum of Natural History keeps an official list of megamouth sightings, and 63 sightings have been confirmed in the last 41 years.

According to Wikipedia, the megamouth shark is a species of deepwater shark. It is rarely seen by humans and is the smallest of the three extant filter-feeding sharks, alongside the whale shark and basking shark.

Like the other two planktivorous sharks, it swims with its enormous mouth wide open, filtering water for plankton and jellyfish.

Megamouth sharks have been found in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan have each yielded at least 10 specimens, the most of any single area, amounting to more than half the worldwide total. Specimens have also been sighted in or come out of the waters near Hawaii, California, Mexico, Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, Senegal, South Africa, and Ecuador.

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