They’re slow-moving (hence the name “sleeper), and much of their activity takes place near the bottom of the sea. They plunge incredibly deep as well, dropping down to 6,500 feet or deeper. They’ve been spotted at lengths of 23 feet, and the average adult size is something to the tune of 800 pounds. These monsters float like low-hanging blimps above the ocean floor, vacuuming up the likes of giant Pacific octopuses and squid. Alaskan Fish & Wildlife researchers even suspect Pacific sleepers of devastating the Steller sea lion population. All of this is to say that you can definitely categorize Pacific sleeper sharks as one of the animals that “lurk in the deep ocean.” They’re spooky, rare, and only supposed to dwell in Arctic climates. That’s part of the reason the video you’re about to see is so incredible.
The Kavachi Volcano
Kavachi is an active volcano off the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. It’s a submarine volcano, which means It’s an underwater vent capable of producing lava and shooting debris high above the water level. The vent is just 66 feet below the ocean surface, so eruptions cause a variety of visible spectacles whenever they occur. Those eruptions manifest in a number of ways depending on the conditions of the vent prior to the eruption. It erupts every few years and releases so much lava that small, short-term islands form afterward. They wash away because they’re too small to defend against erosion from waves, but the remains of these islands make for a dynamic ocean floor.
The Context of The Video
The Kavachi volcano had never been studied up close prior to 2015 when the team shooting this video arrived. They dropped the camera equipment into the depths, left it there to record, and pulled it back up to analyze the results. They marveled at some of the sea life they saw meandering the area around the vent. They were stunned, however, when they saw the “brown blob” that appeared to be a shark. Brennan Phillips and his team were not there to hunt down mysterious sleeper sharks, and they would have been thousands of miles out of place if they were. Pacific sleeper sharks typically live in the Arctic. They have no place hovering near hot volcanos along the equator, just west of Papa New Guinea. Phillips sent the video to biologists who specialize in sharks, and their response was perplexing—it looked like a Pacific sleeper. Note that the Southern sleeper, Pacific sleeper, and Greenland shark (all closely-related species) are just slight variations upon one another. That means there’s a chance the shark was misidentified. Still, the video below catches an erroneous glimpse of aquatic behavior scientists don’t yet understand. So, without further adieu, behold the mysterious “volcano shark.”
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