Pair of Megamouth Sharks Swimming in California
It’s rare to see one, but seeing a pair of megamouth sharks is unreal. A few lucky friends captured fantastic footage of two large megamouth sharks. Just 30 miles from San Diego Coast, these incredible and ancient sharks were swimming on the surface. This is also rare for these sharks because they are deep-sea dwellers. And most megamouth sharks have been seen in southeast Asia, where they get caught in fishing nets.
Val Costescu, David Stabile, and Andrew Chang were the three friends that spotted the sharks. They were fishing on a 21-footer Hynautical boat when they spotted fins in the water. In the video one of them is heard saying that it’s a great whites. Andrew Chang recognized the species immediately and let everyone on the ship know they were megamouths. He remembered seeing one in a natural history museum when he was a kid. The scary-looking creature stayed fresh in his memory.
Since their discovery in 1976, only around 100 megamouth sharks have been observed or studied. David Stabile said, “I think every guy has grown up watching Shark Week and has always wanted to see a shark in the wild.” He added that “People’s perception of sharks is that they’re these aggressive, mean animals, and it was absolutely shocking for us to come across sharks that seemed friendly.” The group enjoyed the pair of megamouth sharks’ company for ten minutes before they slowly swam away.
The Rare Megamouth Sharks
After reviewing the video from the trip, Dovi Kacev, assistant teaching professor, said that he believes the sharks were around 4 meters long. He also said, “We know that they exist but they’ve been seen, you know, relatively few amounts of times, given their size.” Kacev also added that scientists believe that megamouth sharks live in deep waters, but they are filter-feeders. This means that they surface to eat, but we rarely see them.
