Alan Jamieson, researcher, on unexpected finding in Antartica: “It’s a hunk of a shark. These things are tanks”

An ungainly shape drifted through the darkness over 1,600 feet beneath the Antarctic surface. The water was said to be a near-freezing 1.27 degrees Celsius, roughly 34.3 degrees Fahrenheit. And in that dim, disconcerting world that most of us will never experience, a sleeper shark slid into view.

For Alan Jamieson, it was the kind of moment that rewrites assumptions in real time.

“We went down there not expecting to see sharks because there’s a general rule of thumb that you don’t get sharks in Antarctica,” the researcher said, after footage captured in January 2025 was cleared for release to The Associated Press.

“And it’s not even a little one either. It’s a hunk of a shark. These things are tanks.”

The animal, estimated at around 10 to 13 feet, cruised above the seabed near the South Shetland Islands - north of the Scottish mainland – well within the Southern Ocean boundary below 60 degrees south. A skate rested motionless nearby, seemingly unfazed. But funnily enough, skates were expected this far south. Sharks, on the other hand, were not.

Jamieson, founding director of the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre at the University of Western Australia, said he could find no previous confirmed record of a shark in the Antarctic Ocean. Independent biologist Peter Kyne agreed the sighting pushes the known range farther south than ever documented.

Whether climate change is nudging sharks poleward remains unclear. The Antarctic Ocean is heavily stratified, with warmer layers hovering around 500 meters, about 1,640 feet, above colder, denser water below. The shark appeared to track that relatively milder band.

For much of the year, no cameras watch these depths. “The other 75% of the year, no one’s looking at all,” Jamieson said.

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