{"id":241913,"date":"2025-07-06T05:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T05:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/241913\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T05:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T05:28:10","slug":"incredible-pacific-sleeper-sharks-footage-captures-feeding-scenes-over-3000ft-deep-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/241913\/","title":{"rendered":"Incredible Pacific Sleeper Sharks footage captures feeding scenes over 3,000ft deep | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"NEWS
\n\t\tPacific sleeper sharks have been captured feeding on the ocean floor in a rare sighting in the South China Sea (Picture: Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research)<\/p>\n

Rare footage has been capture of giant Pacific sleeper sharks<\/a> feeding on the ocean floor.<\/p>\n

Scientists observed the fascinating scramble after dropping a dead cow into the South China<\/a> Sea near the island of Hainan.<\/p>\n

Pacific sleeper sharks are rarely spotted that far south, with the giant species usually preferring the colder waters of the North Pacific.<\/p>\n

The discovery also extends their known range, the Economic Times <\/a>reported.<\/p>\n

The incredible footage appeared to show the predators queueing to feed from the bovine carcass in a hierarchical system.<\/p>\n

Individuals approaching the carcass from behind appeared to take precedence over those in front already feeding.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvideo<\/a><\/p>\n

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Researchers from Sun Yat Sen University in Guangzhou and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory lowered the bovine carcass to a depth of 1,629 metres and placed cameras to observe the behaviour of marine animals.<\/p>\n

They were surprised to find huge sleeper sharks among those gathering for the meat.<\/p>\n

The large species, which can grow to nearly four metres long, is usually found in the North Pacific, including in the Bering Sea and in the Gulf of Alaska.<\/p>\n

Pacific sleeper sharks are thought to be both scavengers and successful stealth predators as they make little noise underwater.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, all the sharks captured feeding from the cow carcass were females, possibly indicating the area may serve as a nursery ground for large shark species.<\/p>\n

Other shark species including the megamouth shark are known to have female bias in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

How deep do Pacific sleeper sharks live?<\/p>\n

Pacific sleeper sharks can live in depths as low as 2,000 metres below sea level.<\/p>\n

According to the Shark Research Institute<\/a>, they prefer continental shelves and slopes, where they rely on stealth predatory behaviour and scavenging.<\/p>\n

While they are typically found in the icy waters of the North Pacific and near the Arctic Circle, the latest study shows they can range much further south.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"NEWS
\n\t\tThe large bovine carcass lowered into the South China Sea off Hainan (Picture:Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research)
\nHow rare is the sighting?<\/p>\n

Very rare, scientists say, given that Pacific sleeper sharks are thought to prefer far colder waters, such as in the Bering Sea and Baja California.<\/p>\n

The discovery in the South China Sea considerably extends the known range of the species.<\/p>\n

Because of the depth of their typical habitat, much remains unknown about Pacific sleeper sharks, including exactly how they feed and reproduce.<\/p>\n

However previous sightings of the rare species in the southern hemisphere have been known.<\/p>\n

A huge Pacific sleeper was spotted in the Tonga Trench in January of this year.<\/p>\n

The unusual discovery was found at a depth of around 1,600 metres where water temperatures are usually around 2.5C.<\/p>\n

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tNews Updates<\/p>\n

Stay on top of the headlines with daily email updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pacific sleeper sharks have been captured feeding on the ocean floor in a rare sighting in the South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[1395,10809,12,70,934,16,15,1717,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-241913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-marine-biology","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-sharks","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-wildlife","16":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114804641363703744","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}