Unfortunately, bar the (two foot?) grenadier bumping into this monster, there's no simple reference for size within the videoframe, but the sheer impression of bulk is overwhelming: remember that this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTKzrVv7I_o&eurl=) is what feeds on Mesonychoteuthis! :bugout:

Edit: Apparently this is already from 1990 and based on the bait cage it was estimated at 7 meters (23 feet) in length... that's BIG.

I've always found Greenland sharks to be very cool, thanks for posting this. :lol: @ the people who responded to the video, some say such dumb things.

can any of you teuthologist hot shots see enough of the squid to ID it? It seems likely to be Dosidicus, but it looked a little longer and thinner...

Oh, it's Dosidicus alright, just a fairly large specimen; the dimensions change slightly with size, and the camera's focal length makes things slightly more convincing still. I think the specimen being held by the scuba diver is close to seven feet total length, which is very considerable...

this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTKzrVv7I_o&eurl=) is what feeds on Mesonychoteuthis! :bugout:



Impressive, but unlikely to be feeding on Messie! The greenland sleeper shark is restricted to the Arctic and Messie to the Antarctic!

There is however a southern sleeper shark but as far as I know there is no info on it's diet..............but I wouldn't be surprised if they eat each other! (I have found shark skin in Moroteuthis guts!)

Cheers

J

http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1697&highlight=Kerguelen

Forgot that! :oops: thanks for the reminder.....but still isn't the greenland sleeper............bet they eat archi tho!

J

Funny how the title of that youtube vid is "Megalodon"...either someone's been cloning giant sharks, or the user's been ill informed of erm..current affairs.

Megalodon, eh? Hah...I particularly liked this comment:

"holy shit! IS THIS REAL?
I HEARD ABOUT THIS BUT I NEVER NEW IT WAS REALESED"

Interesting how you get such giant forms in such nutrient-poor areas. I wonder what else there is down there.

One of the respondees to the You Tube vid reckons "in fact it was taken by the french submersible Nautile during a dive in Suruga Bay" - was any other footage from that dive released or available?

Are there any other Sleeper Shark videos around, I would be very interested to see more sleeper footage?

Sleeper shark footage is remarkably scarce. There's some really good stuff by national geographic, which they took during their Greenland photoshoot of a few year back, but Pacific sleeper shark is a different story. I will go a hunting for it, nevertheless!

Edit: I know MBARI are sitting on a 8 foot pregnant female video, please find stills attached.

Second edit: There's a video here (http://dsc.discovery.com/beyond/?dcitc=w16-502-ag-0000&videoRef=b4578665bda0207e30700678a3ea997 501e09241) of a harbor branch submerisible encountering a 4.5 meter Greenland shark off the coast of Maine.

Third edit: Greenland shark video (http://www.marinebiodiversity.ca/shark/english/greenland.htm)

Many thanks Ob, that's brilliant.

Wormlike parasites in the eyes?? :yuck:

My reading of the linked to thread http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthre...h t=Kerguelen is that we never conclusively (excuse my spelling) worked out whether certain types of Sleeper prey on Messie?

Am I correct in that interpretation of the debate?

I can't imagine a relatively slow moving shark with impaired eye-sight being able to pursue, or stalk, or ambush a Messie with enormous well developed eyes and amazing reflexes. I'm sure they wouldn't pass up a scavenging opportunity on a dead messie though.

Cheers!

Although I also suppose that sleeper sharks mainly scavenge on dead or dying Mesonychoteuthis, I would not completely rule out that they are able to catch and kill such a beast. They look very sluggish, but they can also be very fast on short distances, and the lack of eyesight is surely compensited with other senses.

Although I also suppose that sleeper sharks mainly scavenge on dead or dying Mesonychoteuthis, I would not completely rule out that they are able to catch and kill such a beast. They look very sluggish, but they can also be very fast on short distances, and the lack of eyesight is surely compensited with other senses.

Is it not pitch black 'down there' anyway?

The copepod parasites are in most cases bioluminescent, luring prey to the shark itself; their other senses (notably the ability to sense the faintest muscular activity and changes in waterpressure) are so keen that they hardly need vision, anyway. The deep sea is rife with bioluminescence, which is the reason why there are so many visual hunters in the pitch black abyss.

Animals like the Greenland sharks aren´t also only in deep water, they come even sometimes very close to the surface. Two days ago I´ve seen a very interesting documentation which showed a greenland shark swimming under the surface of the ice. As this sharks are regularly caught with hook and line or nets, they are surely not always in the real abbys.

And, the copepods don't actually cover the entire cornea, as illustrated in this picture of Ommatokoita elongata, the parasite in question.

By the way, does anybody know for what reasons sleeper sharks always look it they are already partly decomposed?

They constantly bump into stuff :wink:

.

Edit: Apparently this is already from 1990 and based on the bait cage it was estimated at 7 meters (23 feet) in length... that's BIG.


Here's a useful calculator - converts lengths into London buses:
http://www.simonkelk.co.uk/sizeofwales.html

Unfortunately, bar the (two foot?) grenadier

Actually that's not a grenadier, it's a chimaera. You can tell by the fins.

And, the copepods don't actually cover the entire cornea, as illustrated in this picture of Ommatokoita elongata, the parasite in question.

Thanks ob, I was just about to eat, but now I don't feel hungry anymore.

What do the copepods get out of the relationship?

myopsida - thanks for the calculator, I'm a big fan of the routemaster bus as size comparison. I've added that to my favourites.

Actually that's not a grenadier, it's a chimaera. You can tell by the fins.

:oops:

Here is a very interesting article about greenland sharks: http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/0,1518,473863,00.html
As it is in german, most of you will probably not understand it. I´ll try to put the content in a nutshell: Greenland sharks are no sluggish deep sea scavengers. Recent studies showed that their diet consists to a big part of seals, and it is very unprobable that they were all already dead when they were eaten by the sharks. They have also often salmons in their stomaches, which are also very fast fish. Furthermore studies with transmitter-marked sharks showed that they swim not only in deep water, but also very often in minimal depths, often directly under the ice, most probably to hunt for seals. If they are really such active and efficient predators, it could really be that they actually hunt living giant and colossal squid.

What is also facinating is their incredibly slow growth rate, potentially the larger specimens are well over a hundred years old ("hundreds of years theoretically" according to the article, putting stress on the adjective). Bowheads spring to mind.

Yes, this is exactly what I also thought some time ago. Even their smallest relatvies can life for about a century, but how long needs a sleeper shark to grow to 7m?