Never-Before-Seen Orange Shark Discovered By Anglers In Costa Rica

Wildlife is incredible, especially when you’re talking about Florida and the Caribbean.

Sport fishing while off the coast of Costa Rica, anglers were shocked when they ended up catching a never-before-seen orange shark, which came in at six feet long.

In Aug. 2024, Juan Pablo Solano and Garvin Watson were with the Parismina Domus Dei tour company while on their sport fishing trip, with plans to fish around Tortuguero National Park, per a study that was published Aug. 1 from Marine Biodiversity.

During that trip, the fishermen happened to catch a nurse shark that had “intense yellow-orange” coloring, according to the study. The anglers went on to release the shark.

Pictures that were posted to Facebook by Parismina Domus Dei spotlight the orange shark, which is a clear standout from the normal gray, brown or olive sharks that we usually see. With this particular species, the nurse shark, they’re normally gray. (RELATED: Fisherman Placed In Hospital After Shark Photo Goes Wrong In Florida)

To make the shark even more special, it had “white eyes, with no visible iris” rather than “the typically black iris,” according to the study.

After researchers looked over the pictures and talked with the anglers, they identified the species as an adult nurse shark that had a “rare” condition branded as albino-xanthochromism, something that has never been recorded in history.

Two kinds of “abnormal pigmentation,” xanthism and albinism is a result of genetic mutation, and when it comes to wild sharks, it’s an extraordinarily rare sight, per the study. Xanthism causes “partial or predominantly yellow pigmentation,” while albinism drops melanin and pigmentation levels in the skin and eyes of an animal.

Researchers stated that the orange nurse shark was “the first scientifically documented case of total xanthism in the species and the first record from the Caribbean Sea,” and to make it even better, they came to the conclusion after evaluating its size that “this unusual pigmentation did not affect its survival.”

It’s absolutely remarkable what you can find in those oceans.