Antarctica is a continent that has long been believed to have no native reptile and shark species. But scientists have confirmed that they have finally found sharks in the waters of the Southern Ocean, making it the first time in history. Sharks are believed to not exist in the Antarctic environment due to the water temperature being too cold.
However, in January 2025, researchers from the Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Center managed to record a video of a shark between 3-4 meters long at a depth of 490 meters. At this depth, the temperature is only around 1.27 degrees Celsius. The discovery was only revealed recently.
The good news here is that the appearance of sharks is not because climate change has made the water temperature high enough to accommodate shark habitat. On the contrary, scientists say that as long as the underwater camera is only placed during the Southern Hemisphere summer, between December and February. The discovery made last year was just luck and scientists do not deny that there may be other species that have not yet been discovered.
