Imagine discovering a shark in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth—Antarctica’s frozen depths. It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie, but it just happened. For the first time ever, a shark has been caught on camera in these icy waters, challenging everything we thought we knew about marine life in the Southern Ocean. But here’s where it gets controversial: Could this be a sign of climate change pushing species into uncharted territories, or has this shark been lurking in the shadows all along, unnoticed by human eyes?
In January 2025, a deep-sea camera operated by the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre captured a startling sight: a massive sleeper shark, estimated to be three to four meters long, gliding slowly over a barren seabed 490 meters below the surface. The water temperature at that depth was a bone-chilling 1.27 degrees Celsius—far colder than most sharks are known to tolerate. Researcher Alan Jamieson, the founding director of the center, described the shark as a ‘hunk of a tank,’ emphasizing its substantial size and unexpected presence. ‘We went down there not expecting to see sharks,’ Jamieson explained. ‘There’s a general rule that sharks don’t exist in Antarctica, but this discovery flips that assumption on its head.’
And this is the part most people miss: While a skate—a shark relative resembling a stingray—was also spotted in the footage, its presence wasn’t surprising since scientists already knew skates inhabited these southern waters. But a shark? That’s a game-changer. Jamieson couldn’t find any record of a shark ever being documented in the Antarctic Ocean before this. Peter Kyne, a conservation biologist from Charles Darwin University, echoed this sentiment, calling the discovery ‘quite significant.’
So, why now? One theory is that warming oceans, driven by climate change, might be forcing sharks to seek refuge in colder waters. However, Kyne pointed out that data on range changes near Antarctica is limited due to the region’s remoteness. Another possibility is that sleeper sharks have been in Antarctica all along, their slow-moving nature and sparse population making them nearly invisible to human observation. ‘This shark was in the right place, the camera was in the right place, and we got this incredible footage,’ Kyne said.
The shark was found in a layer of water around 500 meters deep, which Jamieson explained is the warmest of several stratified layers in the Antarctic Ocean. This stratification occurs due to density contrasts, with colder, denser water from below not mixing easily with freshwater runoff from melting ice. Jamieson believes other Antarctic sharks likely inhabit this same depth, feeding on the remains of whales, giant squids, and other creatures that sink to the ocean floor.
Here’s the kicker: The cameras capable of capturing these deep-sea wonders are few and far between, and they can only operate during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer months (December to February). ‘For the other 75% of the year, no one’s looking,’ Jamieson noted. ‘That’s why we keep stumbling upon these surprises.’
But what does this discovery mean for our understanding of marine ecosystems in Antarctica? Is this an isolated incident, or are more sharks waiting to be found? And if climate change is indeed pushing species into new territories, what other surprises might the frozen depths hold? Let us know your thoughts in the comments—this is a conversation that’s just beginning.
