Fisherman in Masbate finds rare megamouth shark

A fisherman from Masbate was surprised when he accidentally caught a shark with wide a mouth in his fishing net.

Elmer Alburosaid on Kim Atienza's report on "24 Oras" on Wednesday that the shark's mouth was almost two-feet wide and seven meters long.

"It was truly scary because it was so big," he said and estimated its weight to be 250 to 300 kilos.

Elmer concluded that he found one of the rarest and most elusive sharks in the world, the megamouth shark.

"I didn't hurt it. Its tail was coiled around our rope that's why it struggled to get free," he said.

Elmer freed the shark by removing their rope which helped the shark move.

"We weren't hurt by it and we didn't hurt the megamouth shark. I'm sure its alive," he said.

The megachasma pelagios or megamouth shark is elusive to humans because they live in the deepest parts of the ocean.

AA Yaptinchay, Executive Director of Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines, said that they live more than one kilometer in depth.

As they are truly evasive, the megamouth sharks were only discovered in Oahu, Hawaii in 1976. There are only 200 documented and studied specimens.

"Taiwan has the most reports. Then, the Philippines actually is next to Taiwan with the most reports. The Philippines has 42 reports," Yaptinchay said.

Unfortunately, it only gets reported when the shark is dead or caught in a net.

"Since the sharks are rare, actually, its status is data deficient ang status. It would be good to report this properly by proper documentation," Yaptinchay said.

"When caught, the fisherman is correct [to record it], he has documentation through video or photo. Then it's good to inform those studying the species, like the Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines," he added.

Meanwhile, a bowhead whale holds the Guinness World Record for the largest mouth in the world. The artic-residing whale's mouth can reach up to five meters, four meters in height, and 2.5 meters in width. Its tongue can also weigh a ton.

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—Nika Roque/MGP, GMA News