Sixgilled Sharks

The Bluntnose Sixgill shark, Hexanchus griseus, is the third largest predatory shark in the world and is found right here in Puget Sound. The Bluntnose Sixgill shark grows 10-16 feet, and has six gills on each side of its body; commonly species of sharks have five gills. The sixgill is an ancient 200-million-year-old species, gray-brown in color with a single, small dorsal fin near the end of their body. They have a blunt snout and small eyes in front of the mouth. The sharks are opportunist feeders eating anything that might be available including large fish, crabs and squid. The sixgill shark is the largest of eleven sighted species of sharks in Puget Sound, and can be found year-round. The shark is slow moving, curious and nonthreatening to divers; it has not been reported to attack people without being provoked. After sixgill sharks were caught in Elliot Bay in 2001, state regulators placed a permanent sport fishing ban on the sharks. Not much is know about sixgill sharks because they are bottom dwellers and prefer the darkness. Currently, a joint research team with representatives from the Seattle Aquarium, University of Washington, Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium and Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife is studying sixgill sharks at a research station beneath the pier at the Seattle Aquarium. Research dives take place every other month for two nights in a row. The team is studying the habits, biology and local abundance of the sharks. There is worldwide concern over the fate of sharks in the oceans as approximately 79 of the 350 species worldwide are considered threatened.