Guest Author - Connie Newbauer

A Tokyo fisherman recently reported goblins in the ocean…a Goblin Shark, that is!
Just like a ghost, the Goblin Shark has been slipping in and out of fishermen’s nets since 1898 when a Japanese fisherman hauled up a 42-inch (107 cm) juvenile male Goblin Shark.
Only about 45 Goblin Shark catches have been documented – more than half of these off the coast of Japan. Other Goblin Sharks have been captured in nets off the coasts of Portugal, Southern California and New Zealand.
Some scientists speculate the Goblin Sharks are very rare, yet others believe they may not be as rate as once thought.
The world’s scientists still do not know much about the Goblin Shark. Most are observed after death and scientists once thought the shark was a dreary battle-ship gray, like most other shark species. However, in March of 1976, a live Goblin shark observed and photographed by *ichthyologists, showed a soft pinkish or purple-gray body with clear peacock-blue margins on the fins.
Color in most living creatures is a result of skin pigment. Color on the Goblin Shark is the result of oxygenated blood capillaries close to the body surface, visible through the clear outer layer of skin.
At this point, scientists can only wonder about many details of this elusive creature of the deep. What we do know is this:
~The appearance is shocking with a very long, flat snout, forming a dagger-like blade jutting above a mobile jaw with slender, fang-like teeth. It’s skin is soft and body flabby.
~The rear fin is large and broadly rounded.
~The length at birth is unknown. The average length seen is about 5 ft. (1.6 m); the largest Goblin shark on record is a 12.6 ft. (3.8 m) long male. Adult females grow larger yet!
~Goblin sharks swim the ocean depths of 130 to 3940 ft. (40 to 120m); most goblin Sharks have been caught off Honshu, Japan at depths of 200 to 920 ft. (60 to 280m).
~Little is known about the Goblin Shark’s diet. They seem to be sluggish, feeding in mid-water or perhaps near the bottom using "shark-sonar” to locate prey. To capture prey from close range, it uses the combination of its mobile jaw and vacuum-like throat.
The good news: even if you should site this Goblin shark while swimming the ocean deep, it is probably not harmful in anyway to humans!

*a branch of zoology dealing with fishes.