Rare Megamouth Shark Caught, Then Eaten

Fishermen based in Donsol, the Philippines, caught one of the world’s rarest sharks, the megamouth (Megachasma pelagios), in a trawling net on March 30th.

The megamouth is so rare that each one gets numbered, and only 40 other sitings have ever been recorded, making this shark number 41.

Not a lucky number for this one, as it ended up as dinner.

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The megamouth is named after its enormous mouth - a meter wide - and is a recent discovery, with the first one caught off Oahu, Hawaii in 1976. The discovery prompted the creation of a new family and genus for it because of the major differences between it and previously known sharks. It was called “the 20th century’s most significant marine find” by the scientific community.

The megamouth shark is one of only three filter-feeding shark species, along with the basking and whale shark, and feeds on plankton, small fish, and jellyfish at shallow depths (15 meters).

After identification, it was butchered and eaten. WWF Donsol Project Manager Elson Aca identified the shark and tried to talk fishermen out of eating it, but shark meat is a delicacy in the Bicol region of the Philippines, and the megamouth ended up on the table.

Image: ©WWF-Philippines/Elson Aca

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