Rare sighting of a “Sharktopus” leaves the spectators fascinated and confused

The marine biologist Rochelle Constantine and her research team came up with something completely unexpected during a research trip off the New Zealand north coast – a sight that made them absolutely stunned.

While he was watching a short fin -Mako -Hai in December 2023, she noticed.

“It had a really big orange-brown shape on the head”, which recently Constantine shared the discovery in a blog posttold How it happens Host Nil Köksal.

“We say: ‘Oh, it is involved in a buoy, (or) a kind of fishing equipment? Or maybe (it) an injury because injuries often have unusual colors under water.”

To get to the bottom, the team steered his boat closer to the shark, used a drone for aerial photographs and put a GoPro into the water to take a closer look.

What they discovered was far from what they were expecting: the mysterious blob was actually a Maori ink inkfish that held on the head of the shark.

“It was definitely worked on keeping yourself very much over the top,” said Konstantine, professor of biosciences at the University of Auckland. “You could see a tentacle … from time to time.”

It didn’t take long for the team to give the eerie duo a name.

“It was called the water almost immediately,” said Constantine. “The Sharktopus.”

A very unlikely couple

The Maori Octopus, the largest squid in the southern hemisphere, lives deep down and feeds on the sea floor, says Konstantin.

In the meantime, the Mako shark typically floats in the middle water over large depths, but rarely, if at all, approaches the sea floor.

“How they actually found themselves is the greatest puzzle,” said Konstantin. “You have very different worlds.”

According to Konstantin, scientists can only speculate about what they have brought together.

“I think as long as the squid keeps away from the mouth of the Mako Shark, you are probably definitely friends,” she said.

Verena Tunnicliffe, biologist of the University of Victoria Marine, who was not involved in the expedition, says that the squid probably came to the shark and hid on her back.

“It is a very bright animal – where is the safest place? (I) I think it hopes that it can slip without notice,” said Tunnicliffe.

“I can’t imagine that it is a joyride, but you never know.”

Keep it a mystery

Although the Sharktopus remains a mystery, the encounter has sparked widespread interest worldwide.

O’clock | The drone material of the University of Auckland shows that Sharktopus from above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cylbarkmdy

And Konstantin is everything for the chatter and the attention that the “Sharktopus” has created.

“I It was really very loved that people around the world and all of these languages ​​speak: “Well, what is it? Why should you find yourself? What’s going on? ‘”

For Konstantin, the unexpected encounter serves as a memory of how much we have to learn something about the ocean and its incredible creatures. while We nudge to be better administrators.

“The life of these animals is as much more than the way we perceive them,” she said.

“I think this applies to everything in the ocean. I really want people to just stop and think about how much we don’t know how cool the ocean is and how important it is for us.”