
The second-ever pocket shark was gathered off Louisiana. It kind of resembles a little whale. Photograph: politeness of FishWatch.gov
A pocket shark—the rarest of sharks with stand out example ever seen before—has been found by researchers, and in the most unordinary way.
A male pocket shark measuring 5.5 inches in length was gathered amid a 2010 midwater trawl study 190 miles south of Louisiana by NOAA/NMFS Southeast Fisheries Science Center while concentrating on prey of sperm whales.
The dead example was gathered with other ocean animals, sacked up and put away in a monster cooler at NOAA's lab in Pascagoula, Mississippi, until they could be distinguished, by Related Press.
NOAA fisheries researcher Imprint Elegance, lead creator on a simply discharged study, has put in over 30 years experiencing sacks of fish to distinguish them. It took him three years prior to running over the pocket shark.
Related Press called it a minor act of God that the pocket shark hadn't been hurled out after NOAA's cooler lost power two or three ti
A pocket shark—the rarest of sharks with stand out example ever seen before—has been found by researchers, and in the most unordinary way.
A male pocket shark measuring 5.5 inches in length was gathered amid a 2010 midwater trawl study 190 miles south of Louisiana by NOAA/NMFS Southeast Fisheries Science Center while concentrating on prey of sperm whales.
The dead example was gathered with other ocean animals, sacked up and put away in a monster cooler at NOAA's lab in Pascagoula, Mississippi, until they could be distinguished, by Related Press.
NOAA fisheries researcher Imprint Elegance, lead creator on a simply discharged study, has put in over 30 years experiencing sacks of fish to distinguish them. It took him three years prior to running over the pocket shark.
Related Press called it a minor act of God that the pocket shark hadn't been hurled out after NOAA's cooler lost power two or three ti

“I wasn’t really sure what it was,”
Grace told the Associated Press. “That pocket over on the pectoral fin, I
had never seen anything like that on a shark.”
Grace recruited Michael Doosey and Henry Bart, Tulane University researchers, and NOAA Ocean Service genetics expert Gavin Naylor to help him study the rare sea creature, the results of which were published Wednesday in Zootaxa.
“It’s cute,” Doosey told the Associated Press. “It almost looks like a little whale.”
Grace recruited Michael Doosey and Henry Bart, Tulane University researchers, and NOAA Ocean Service genetics expert Gavin Naylor to help him study the rare sea creature, the results of which were published Wednesday in Zootaxa.
“It’s cute,” Doosey told the Associated Press. “It almost looks like a little whale.”

The specimen, determined to have just
been born, was identified and subsequently sent to New York and France
for high-tech examinations.
The first pocket shark was found 36 years ago on the Naska Submarine Ridge in 1,083 feet of water in the southeast Pacific Ocean off Peru. The female specimen is 17 inches long and is currently housed in a Russian museum.
The latest pocket shark will be part of the Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection at Tulane University’s Biodiversity Research Institute in Belle Chasse, Louisiana.
“Discovering him has us thinking about where mom and dad may be, and how they got to the Gulf [of Mexico],” Grace said in a statement on NOAA’s site. “The only other known specimen was found very far away, off Peru…
“There’s others,” he added via Associated Press. “We just haven’t caught them yet.”
The first pocket shark was found 36 years ago on the Naska Submarine Ridge in 1,083 feet of water in the southeast Pacific Ocean off Peru. The female specimen is 17 inches long and is currently housed in a Russian museum.
The latest pocket shark will be part of the Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection at Tulane University’s Biodiversity Research Institute in Belle Chasse, Louisiana.
“Discovering him has us thinking about where mom and dad may be, and how they got to the Gulf [of Mexico],” Grace said in a statement on NOAA’s site. “The only other known specimen was found very far away, off Peru…
“There’s others,” he added via Associated Press. “We just haven’t caught them yet.”