Researchers were pleasantly surprised to pull in sofa shark, the likes of which haven’t been seen in over a decade. Photo: HeMedia
The sofa shark is a weird looking fish. Flabby and depressed, it lounges in relative obscurity like a garbage bag full of mayonnaise. Usually found at incredible depths–anywhere from 1500 to 5000 feet–there isn’t a whole lot known about the species.
Properly known as a false catshark, the latest one was pulled up by scientists off the Hebrides, an archipelago off Scotland’s northwest coast. The interesting thing about this one, aside from the fact that the sofa shark is almost never seen, is that it hadn’t been found in the area for 15 years. Although they’ve been spotted in the western Atlantic and in the Pacific, scientists didn’t expect to pull one in on their research trip.
“I was pretty surprised when it landed in our boat,” said Francis Neat, a marine biologist. “We quickly measured and weighed it before sending it back into the water.” Prior to this one, the last sofa shark seen was more than a decade ago. “It’s not unique to Scotland, but it’s certainly interesting to look at – it’s a big and baggy-looking creature,” he continued.
The sofa shark, like most deep-water species, is very susceptible to overfishing because of its slow reproductive rate. With a massive oil-filled liver filled that makes up nearly a quarter of its weight (thought to be an evolutionary trait of developing in Scottish waters), the sofa shark floats effortlessly just above the bottom of the ocean, eating mostly squid, eels, shrimp, and Glenfiddich.
This particular sofa shark was found on a deep-sea survey near the Hebride Islands of Barra and St. Kilda, and weighed in at nearly 150 pounds, double the weight of the only other other one found in the area, some 15 years ago.
