An image of an octopus on a shark's head
Researchers spotted an orange blob near a shark's head. It turned out to be an octopus along for a ride. Wednesday Davis / University of Auckland
In December 2023, marine ecologist Rochelle Constantine spotted something strange during a research trip near New Zealand’s northern coast. The mako shark she saw swimming near the surface wasn’t unusual on its own—but the giant orange patch on its head was.
“At first, I was like, ‘Is it a buoy?’” says Constantine to Melissa Hobson at the New York Times. “‘Is it entangled in fishing gear or had a big bite?’”
When the researchers sent a drone to get a closer look, they found that the orange mass was what they later dubbed a “sharktopus”—an octopus attached to the shark’s head.
The research team observed the pairing for ten minutes before moving on, but they were left dumbfounded by the unusual carpool arrangement. The two animals, they say, would ordinarily not be expected to encounter one another.
“We really don’t know how this octopus, that lives on the seabed, came across this … mako shark that lives in pelagic—open ocean waters,” Constantine, who works at New Zealand’s University of Aukland, says in an email to Jess Thomson at Live Science. “It really is a mystery—but the ocean is filled with unexpected things.”
YouTube Logo
“It is almost impossible to speculate how, or why, this shark and octopus might have come together or what the nature of their connection might be,” says Abigail McQuatters-Gollop, a marine conservation ecologist at the University of Plymouth in England who was not involved in the octopus observation, to the New York Times. “But does that matter?”
The encounter, she adds, is a reminder that special things happen in the ocean every day.
Scientists spotted the duo in the Hauraki Gulf off New Zealand’s North Island. The intrepid rider was a Maori octopus—the largest octopus in the Southern Hemisphere. Its shortfin mako companion is known for leaping high out of the water and for being the world’s fastest shark—which means it might have offered a wild ride.
“The octopus may have been in for quite the experience, since [the mako] can reach 50 kph,” or about 31 miles per hour, Constantine writes in a statement. Once the shark started to move faster, the octopus probably wouldn’t have been able to hold on, she adds to the New York Times. It’s possible that at that point, the shark would have eaten it. Or, it could have descended to the seabed, its usual home.
But for at least a few short minutes, they were swimming peacefully together. “The shark seemed quite happy, and the octopus seemed quite happy,” says Constantine to the New York Times. “It was a very calm scene.”
YouTube Logo
Shortfin mako sharks are considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and their population is declining. Commercial and recreational fishing are threats to the sharks, and they’re often targeted for their fins. Worldwide, many sharks are threatened and in decline, and their low reproductive rate makes it tough to rebuild their numbers. Constantine writes that encounters like the sharktopus emphasize the importance of protecting the ocean’s wonders.
“One of the best things about being a marine scientist is that you never know what you might see next in the sea,” writes Constantine in the statement. “By supporting conservation initiatives, we can help to ensure that such extraordinary moments keep happening.”