The ocean is home to an incredible diversity of life, including sharks and anglerfish. These two creatures lead very different lives, prompting the question: do their paths ever cross in a way that leads to predation? Exploring their individual worlds and typical behaviors offers insight into the likelihood of such encounters.
The Anglerfish World
Anglerfish are a diverse group of over 200 ray-finned fish species. They are well-adapted to dark, often deep, environments, though some species can be found in shallower waters. Many deep-sea anglerfish use a distinctive bioluminescent lure, a modified dorsal fin ray called an illicium, which glows due to symbiotic bacteria. This lure acts like a fishing rod, attracting unsuspecting prey in the deep ocean’s perpetual darkness.
These fish are ambush predators, often camouflaging themselves or remaining motionless, waiting for prey. Their wide mouths and inwardly curved teeth allow them to swallow prey up to twice their own size, an adaptation useful in environments where food is scarce. Anglerfish species live at various depths, from the surface down to 1,000 meters, with some venturing much deeper, reaching up to 4 to 6 kilometers in abyssal plains. Their diet typically consists of smaller fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods.
Shark Diets and Habitats
Sharks are a diverse group of over 500 cartilaginous fish species found across all major oceans. Their habitats range from shallow coastal areas and coral reefs to open ocean and deep-water floor environments. Some sharks, like the bull shark, can even tolerate freshwater. This wide distribution means sharks have adapted to various ecological niches.
Shark diets vary by species, size, and habitat. Many sharks primarily hunt fish, marine mammals, other sharks, and invertebrates like crustaceans and mollusks. Some of the largest sharks, such as whale sharks and basking sharks, are filter feeders, consuming plankton and small organisms. While many sharks inhabit shallower or mid-water depths, certain species are adapted to deep-sea life, including the Greenland shark, goblin shark, frilled shark, and Portuguese dogfish, some found at depths exceeding 1,000 meters.
Do Their Paths Cross?
Whether sharks eat anglerfish primarily hinges on the overlap of their habitats and feeding behaviors. Deep-sea anglerfish reside in the bathypelagic and abyssopelagic zones, areas characterized by extreme pressure, cold temperatures, and perpetual darkness, often below 1,000 meters. Most shark species, including many large predators, generally inhabit shallower coastal waters or the open ocean, where food is more abundant.
While some shark species do venture into deep waters, their primary hunting grounds often differ from the extreme depths where deep-sea anglerfish are most prevalent. For example, deep-dwelling sharks like the bluntnose sixgill (diving to 1,800 meters) and the Portuguese dogfish (found over 3,600 meters deep) prey on smaller sharks, bony fishes, squids, and cephalopods. Though some deep-sea sharks are known to eat fish and crustaceans, anglerfish are not a common or readily available food source for them. The energy expenditure required for most sharks to consistently hunt in the anglerfish’s extreme environment might not be worth the potential reward, given the scarce and dispersed nature of prey at such depths. While the ocean is immense and occasional encounters can occur, direct predation of anglerfish by sharks is considered rare due to the significant differences in their ecological niches and spatial distribution.