World’s rarest shark cooked in coconut milk
One of the world’s most elusive sharks has been caught, carved up and cooked in coconut milk by fishermen in the Philippines. Megamouth sharks are so rare that the accidental snaring of the giant fish in trawler nets was only the 41st human sighting of the species.
The first capture of the deep water creature off Hawaii in 1976 was hailed by many as the most significant marine find of the 20th century, prompting the creation of an entire new family and genus of sharks.
Unlike most sharks, megamouths are docile creatures who feed on plankton, small fish and jellyfish by opening their vast maws.
The fish, which can grow up to five metres long, are poor swimmers and usually spend the daytime in waters up to a kilometre deep, coming to the surface at night to feed.
Fishermen from the town of Donsol caught the half-tonne shark last week while trawling for mackerel off the Bicol peninsula on Luzon island, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
They reported the capture to local World Wildlife Fund representatives but then butchered and ate the animal against the organisation’s advice. Shark meat sautéed in coconut milk, chilli pepper and malunggay – a spinach-like leaf – is considered a local delicacy.
The seas off the Philippines are among the most densely populated waters for sharks in the world.
Conservationists have persuaded locals to stop killing highly endangered great white sharks, while whale sharks are also spotted regularly. Eight megamouths, around 20 percent of all sightings, have been captured in Philippine waters.
The WWF funds a number of projects studying sharks and marine life in the region, using photography and satellite tagging techniques to map whale shark migration patterns.
Last month WWF officials rescued and released a 15-inch baby whale shark which had been caught by fishermen and tied up.
Individual sightings of megamouths are tracked and catalogued by the Florida Museum of Natural History, which has published more photos of Megamouth 41.