Rarely Seen Shark Filmed Near Underwater Volcano

Voice of BRENNAN PHILLIPS, OCEAN ENGINEER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY/WAITT GRANTEE:

Inside these calderas it’s an extreme and very dangerous environment. Human beings can’t go in there.

SOT: “Three, two, one. Off it goes!”

So each day we did these drop-cam deployments. It was like unwrapping a new present. You never know what you’re going to find, especially when you’re working deep underwater. The deeper you go, the stranger it gets.

So we’re in the Solomon Islands on a small island in the Western Province to study a submarine volcano called Kavachi. No one has ever studied it up close. So to me as a scientist and aspiring explorer, that’s ripe for the picking.

So we’re dropping this camera down primarily to take a closer look at the volcano. And to see interesting biology is just a bonus.

SOT: “Whoah, Man!”

“Nice”

“You see that it was worth it! We should’ve gone straight here.”

[Laughter]

“He looks really different.”

“Wow!”

When we saw the sleeper shark video, we flipped out! I took a few screen grabs and I sent them off to a few ichthyologists, people who would know better than I, and they all looked at it and agreed it was mostly likely a Pacific sleeper shark.

There’s very little known about them. And the more I learned, the more I realized how much a significant find it was to see one on camera. As far as I know as this point, it’s only the third time it’s been captured on video and it’s certainly the best video ever of one.

So the idea of being large animals like sharks hanging out and living inside the caldera of this volcano conflicts with what we know about Kavachi. I mean, it’s hostile when it’s calm. You know, the water’s hot, it’s acidic. It’s hostile enough. And so to see large animals like this that living, it’s very exciting. And exploring the deep sea is like that. That’s the best part.