A young shark glides towards the ocean floor, then slaps the sandy soil with its head before disappearing in a cloud. A pause. A small fish swims by. Then... Then... The fish doesn’t know what hit him.
This is the scene from a new video featuring a rare juvenile shark angel, which was captured off the coast Wales. Researchers who took the footage said that it showed the shark's ambush skills and gave hope that these critically endangered sharks may still be breeding in British waters.
Jake Davies, a marine biologist, spent approximately 15 minutes filming the young shark on a recent dive. Davies sent an email describing the shark's size, which was approximately 12 inches (30 cm) in length. The elusive predator was not shy, and the shark showed a wide range swimming and hunting behaviors. Davies followed it like a personal parazzo.
"It was amazing to watch and film it swim, burying in the sand, and then using its camouflage and ambush prey," Davies, who is project coordinator for the shark conservation group Angel Shark Project, Wales. "This footage is beyond anything we expected to be possible in Wales."
Angel sharks are a genus of Squatina and have flat bodies with wing-like fins that taper to each side. They look similar to rays. According to Britannica, they are ambush predators and lie on the ocean floor waiting to attack. Sometimes, they burrow into the sand to conceal themselves. Sharks attack prey with ninja-like precision when they swim by small, bottom-feeding crustaceans or fish like gobies.
This sneaky lifestyle on the seafloor gives sharks an edge over predators, but it also makes them vulnerable to trawling nets. According to the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species, all species of angel sharks have seen a decline in their numbers over the past 50 years. They are found in small numbers across the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and from Norway to Morocco.
Davies and his colleagues believe that seeing sharks in Wales is a small sign of hope for the genus. They also said that the dives could provide valuable information about the ecology and range of angel sharks.
Original publication on Live Science
