Rare shark visit on the west coast

A vessel fishing in the Skagerrak caught a very unusual catch on Monday. The fishermen had caught a shark that none of them recognized. It finally turned out to be a bluntnose sixgill shark.

It was, of course, an eyebrow raiser. It is very, very unusual, says Anders Wernbo, environmental analyst at SLU’s marine fisheries laboratory in Lysekil, to Göteborgs-Posten.

Monday’s catch was only the second time the shark has been seen in Swedish waters.

This specimen was 72 centimeters long and will now be analyzed at the National Museum of Natural History.

The six-bow combtooth shark is a deep-sea shark that can grow up to five meters long. The shark occurs in tropical and temperate sea areas in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, among others. It also occurs along the Norwegian west coast and has also been found in Danish waters.