Megamouth Shark - Known Specimens

Known Specimens

As of 2012, only 54 megamouth specimens have been caught or sighted. They have been found in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. Japan and Taiwan have each yielded more than 10 specimens, the most of any single area. Specimens have also been pulled from the waters near Hawaii, California, Mexico, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, Senegal, South Africa, and Ecuador.

On March 30, 2009 off Burias Island in the Philippines, an 880- to 1,100-pound (400- to 500-kilogram) 4-metre (13-foot) megamouth shark died while struggling in a fisherman's net and was subsequently taken to nearby Donsol in Sorsogon province, where it was examined by scientists, before being butchered and sold.

On 12 June 2011, a three-metre male deceased juvenile was found by fishermen near the western Baja California peninsula coast, in a region called Bahía de Vizcaíno. It was picked up by the same fishing vessel that in 2006 captured another megamouth specimen in Vizcaino bay, which has led Mexican scientists to believe that the megamouth could be a seasonal visitor to the Baja Peninsula. The new specimen was taken to Ensenada, Mexico, where it was photographed and sliced in order for Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Mexican researchers to study the structure of its muscles and gills.