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Rare Pre-Historic Japanese Shark Makes It Big On YouTube

A rare prehistoric shark normally found a couple thousand feet below was captured off the shallow waters of Japan earlier this week and immediatley taken to Awashima Marine Park for "observation".

Marine biologists had just enough time to count the eel sharks teeth (300 razor sharp fangs), determine the fish was female, and shoot some footage and put it up on YouTube, before the prehistoric shark died. Frill sharks like this one usually inhabit deep sea waters between 400 and 4,200 feet and rarely come to the surface. They do however, show up from time to time in fishermen's nets off the coast of Japan. We are guessing that as soon as the shark was spotted it had little chance of survival, because it was so close to the surface, then again we don't know anything about prehistoric frill sharks.

As for the marine park where the shark spent its final hours, Awashima Marine Park is a small island in Uchiura Bay. The whole island is a maritime park and you can visit by sea-crossing aerial cableway from the opposite side of the sea, Shigedera station. You can learn more about the park on the Awashima Marine Park website, if you know Japanese--the site looks eerily like a Super Mario Brothers world.

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