Rare Goblin Shark Seen Alive in Its Habitat for First Time — and Its Face Is Hard to Forget

For more than a century, the goblin shark has carried the reputation of a deep-sea phantom: known to science, but almost never seen alive where it actually lives. Most encounters came from animals caught on fishing lines and brought to the surface.

Now researchers have published the first live observations of goblin sharks in their natural deep-ocean habitat. The sightings, made in the central Pacific and reported in the Journal of Fish Biology, turn one of the ocean’s strangest predators from a museum-like mystery into a living presence on camera.