It’s long been believed that the waters of the Antarctic Ocean are too cold for sharks, but newly-released video contradicts that. A sleeper shark was spotted swimming along the sea floor there.
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Pacific sleeper sharks can live for more than 200 years.
Researchers reported that the shark, captured on video in January 2025 by the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, was approximately 10-13 feet long. It was swimming at depths exceeding 1,600 feet in 34-degree water.
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Sharks aren’t known to live in waters that cold. Of the estimated 500 species of sharks, experts report only five have been recorded in the ocean surrounding Antarctica, officially known as the Southern Ocean. However, Alan Jamieson, the founding director of the research centre, said he could not find any record of a shark there.
A shark was caught on camera for the first time in Antarctica’s near-freezing deep, surprising many experts who had thought sharks didn’t exist in the frigid waters. Read more here: https://t.co/aMGsDj8UTD pic.twitter.com/EL9ixDXWW0
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 18, 2026
Most of those sightings come from fisheries bycatch in sub-Antarctic regions, according to Forbes.
One conservation biologist told the Associated Press (AP) that warming oceans may be driving some species farther south. Researchers reported that sleeper sharks can survive that depth by feeding on carcasses that sink to the ocean floor, along with squid and other deep-sea life.
Another sighting is unlikely, as there are not many research cameras that deep in Antarctic waters. Those that are can operate only during the Southern Hemisphere summer months, from December through February, according to AP.
