A large sleeper shark was filmed in January 2025 swimming slowly over a dark seabed near Antarctica, surprising scientists who believed sharks were not found that far south, researcher Alan Jamieson said.

The camera from the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre was placed off the South Shetland Islands near the Antarctic Peninsula, inside the Antarctic Ocean, also called the Southern Ocean. The shark appeared at a depth of 490 meters (1,608 feet), where the water was a near-freezing 1.27 degrees Celsius (34.29 degrees Fahrenheit). Jamieson estimated it was 3 to 4 meters (10 to 13 feet) long.

A skate, a ray-like relative of sharks, also appeared on the seabed and did not react as the shark passed. Scientists already knew skates lived that far south. Jamieson said he could find no record of another shark found in the Antarctic Ocean. Peter Kyne, a scientist who studies and protects the environment, agreed it had not been recorded so far south.

Kyne said warming oceans could be pushing sharks into colder waters, but there is limited data because the region is remote. Jamieson said the shark stayed near 500 meters because that layer was the warmest in a sea with several stacked water layers. Few cameras work at that depth, and mostly only in summer from December through February, he said.