Rare sighting of a “Sharktopus” spectators amazed and perplexed

The biologist Marina Rochelle Costantino and her research team met something completely unexpected during a research trip off the northern coast of New Zealand, a show that has left them absolutely amazed.

While observing a short fish Mako shark swimming through the waters in December 2023, something strange attracted their attention.

“He had a very large orange in his head”, Constantine, who recently He shared the discovery in a blog postsaid How it happens It hosts Nil Köksal.

“We are like ‘oh, is entangled in a buoy, (or) a sort of fishing equipment? Or perhaps, (it) has had an accident, because the lesions often have unusual colors under the water.'”

To get to the bottom, the team led their boat closer to the shark, sided a drone for air blows and blocked a GoPro in the water to take a closer look.

What they discovered was far from what they expected: the mysterious Blob was actually a Maori octopus clinging to the shark’s head.

“He was surely working to keep himself very contained on the top,” said Costantino, professor of biological sciences at the University of Auckland. “You could see a tentacle … go away every now and then.”

It didn’t take long because the team gave the incredible name to the duo.

“He was appointed almost instantly in the water,” Costantino said. “Sharktopus.”

A very improbable couple

The Maori octopus, the largest octopus of the southern hemisphere, lives in depth and feeds on the bottom of the sea, says Constantine.

In the meantime, the Mako shark generally swim above in halfway water, immersing himself at great depths but rarely, if ever, approaching the bottom of the ocean.

“The way they actually found themselves is the greatest mystery,” Costantino said. “They have very different worlds.”

Costantino says that scientists can only speculate on what has united them.

“I think as long as the octopus remains far from the mouth of the Mako shark, they are probably certainly friends,” he said.

The marine biologist of the University of Victoria Verena Tunnicliffe, who was not involved in the expedition, says that the octopus probably fell prey to the shark and hid on the back.

“It’s a very bright animal – Where’s the safest place? (I) I guess it is able to slide without notice,” said Tunnicliffe.

“I can’t imagine that he thought it would be a joyride, but you never know.”

Keep it a mystery

Although the way Sharktopus has become a mystery, the meeting has aroused a widespread interest all over the world.

Watch | The filming of the drones of the University of Auckland show the Sharktopus From above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cylbarkmdy

And Costantino is all for the chatter and attention that the “Sharktopus” has generated.

“I I really liked that all over the world, and all these languages, people speak: ‘Well, what is it? Why should they find themselves? What is going on? ‘”

For Constantine, the unexpected meeting serves as a reminder of how much we still have to know the ocean and its incredible creatures, While pushing us to be better administrators than it.

“The life of these animals is much more than we perceive them,” he said.

“I think it’s true for everything in the ocean. I really want people to stop and reflect on how much we don’t know, how beautiful the ocean is and how important it is for us.”