Deep-sea creature — able to glow in the dark — caught by trawlers. It’s a new species
Deep below the surface of the South China Sea, a glow-in-the-dark creature swam through shadowy waters. Suddenly, something enveloped the sea creature and pulled it upward.
On the surface, trawlers hauled in their fishing nets — and caught a new species.
Scientists in Taiwan wanted to study a specific group of deep-sea sharks, according to a study published Jan. 24 in the journal Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. To do this, they worked with commercial fishermen and gathered unwanted or unusual fish that got dragged to the surface.
While bottom trawling in the South China Sea between 2022 and 2023, fishermen caught 23 relatively small sharks they didn’t recognize, the study said. The trawlers froze the animals and gave them to researchers.
Researchers took a closer look at the sharks and realized they’d discovered a new species: Etmopterus lii, or Li’s lantern shark.
Li’s lantern sharks are considered “medium-sized,” reaching about 15 inches in length, researchers said. They have “moderately long” snouts, “large” gills and broad mouths with lots of teeth. Dotting their body and fins, the sharks have “luminescent markings,” indicating they can glow in the dark.
Lantern sharks are named for “their ability to produce blue-green light, known as bioluminescence,” the study said.
A photo shared by Shark-references on Facebook shows two frozen Li’s lantern sharks with a torpedo-like body shape and dark brownish-black coloring.
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Lantern sharks use their bioluminescence for camouflage, scaring away predators and communicating with other lantern sharks, National Geographic reported. These uses vary by species, and much about the shark’s glow remains a mystery.
Researchers said they named the new species after Yong-Tai Li, “the captain of the fishing vessel Xin Yong Tai,” who helped catch these lantern sharks and “many other deep-sea organisms.”
So far, Li’s lantern sharks have only been found in the northern South China Sea where they live at a depth of about 1,600 feet, the study said.
The South China Sea is a highly contested body of water in southeastern Asia that borders Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The new species was identified by its teeth, skin texture, markings, body shape and bone structure, the study said. DNA analysis found the new species had between 3.5% and about 21% genetic divergence from other lantern sharks.
The research team included Shing-Lai Ng, Kwang-Ming Liu and Shoou-Jeng Joung.
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