A very unusual shark has washed up on a Queensland beach. Imagine walking along Coolum Beach and coming across one of the ocean’s strangest sharks.
That’s exactly what happened when a juvenile Goblin Shark washed up near Stumers Creek on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
The discovery was extraordinary. Goblin Sharks are elusive deep-sea animals, usually associated with much deeper waters, and the Coolum specimen was well outside its previously known Australian range. It is believed to be the first known record of a Goblin Shark in Queensland waters and the first to be recorded in the northern half of Australia.
And now, this very unusual shark has become the first Goblin Shark in the Queensland Museum collection.
Meet Hugo, the Goblin Shark
The shark was found by local David Nash while walking his dogs with his sons, Hunter and Harry, near Stumers Creek.
Realising how unusual the animal was, David took it home and preserved it in a freezer until it could be collected for research. The specimen was subsequently taken to the University of the Sunshine Coast, where researchers carried out a necropsy by Professor Bonnie Holmes and her students.
Queensland Museum ichthyologist Jeff Johnson was excited to see the shark. “This is the first for the Queensland Museum collection,” Jeff said.
The specimen is a juvenile male, relatively small for its species. Its body is slender and flabby, with small fins that suggest it was not built for speed.
And then there’s that face.
Why does the Goblin Shark look so strange?
Goblin Sharks are famous for their unusual appearance.
They have a long, flattened snout packed with specialised electroreceptors. These receptors can detect tiny electrical impulses produced by potential prey, helping the shark locate food in the dark depths of the ocean.
But the real party trick is the jaw.
Goblin Shark jaws can protrude dramatically from the head to seize prey. Jeff describes the jaws as being capable of shooting forward almost to the length of the snout, although Hugo is too young and small to demonstrate the full extent of this extraordinary adaptation.
And those teeth? They’re long, thin and distinctly snaggly.
Like other sharks, Goblin Sharks continually replace their teeth. When a tooth is lost, teeth from behind move forward, with additional teeth developing behind them.
A deep-sea shark on a Queensland beach
Goblin Sharks are usually found hundreds of metres below the ocean’s surface, with the supplied research reporting them from depths of around 500 metres and deeper. One recent record of a live Goblin Shark was made almost 2,000 metres deep in the Tonga Trench.
So what was Hugo doing at Coolum? That remains a mystery.
The University of the Sunshine Coast carried out a necropsy to investigate whether they could determine how or why the shark died. The examination found no obvious cause of death.
Jeff also noted that Hugo’s stomach was completely empty.
Deep-sea fish can occasionally wash ashore, but the rarity of this discovery is partly because animals that reach the shallows may be eaten before people have a chance to find them.
We finally know what Goblin Sharks look like alive
Goblin Sharks are so elusive that seeing one alive in its natural habitat is an extraordinary event.
In 2024, Australian scientists captured rare footage of a Goblin Shark in the Tonga Trench. A second live observation had been recorded near Jarvis Island in 2019. The two observations were published together in the Journal of Fish Biology.
The footage is particularly fascinating because a Goblin Shark looks surprisingly different when it is alive.
Its infamous jaws are normally tucked inside its head. When it strikes, those jaws can shoot forward to grab prey.
The live footage gives us a glimpse of a mysterious deep-sea animal that scientists still know relatively little about.
Goblin Sharks belong to an ancient lineage dating back around 125 million years and are sometimes described as “living fossils”.
From Coolum Beach to the Queensland Museum collection
Before Hugo became part of the Queensland Museum collection, researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast had the opportunity to examine the specimen.
The necropsy could not determine a cause of death, but the examination provided an important opportunity to learn more about this unusual shark.
Jeff also took a small muscle tissue sample for DNA analysis.
The DNA will be sequenced and made available through the collection for researchers who may want to investigate Goblin Shark populations in the future.
That’s one of the important roles of a museum collection: preserving specimens so they can continue to provide information long after the original discovery.
Hugo may have washed up unexpectedly on a Queensland beach, but his story doesn’t end there.
A rare shark with more stories to tell
The Coolum Goblin Shark is an extraordinary addition to the Queensland Museum collection.
It is a rare specimen from an elusive deep-sea species, found far outside the species’ previously known Australian range. Its unusual anatomy, DNA and story provide opportunities for future research.
And thanks to the people who recognised that this strange-looking shark was something special, Hugo has been preserved for science and future generations.
So, the next time you’re walking along a Queensland beach and spot something that looks a little unusual, take a closer look. You never know what you might find.
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