{"id":440997,"date":"2026-01-31T14:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/440997\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T14:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:28:15","slug":"rare-shark-washes-ashore-in-israel-then-suddenly-disappears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/440997\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare shark washes ashore in Israel, then suddenly disappears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A nature enthusiast walking the shoreline in central Israel came across the carcass of a rare gray sixgill shark, known to inhabit the deep waters of the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Uri Yosef spotted the dead shark Thursday morning on Shoshanat HaAmakim Beach, and, knowing the sighting would interest marine biologists, he contacted the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, as reported by Israeli news site <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ynetnews.com\/environment\/article\/by1ikxkubx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:YnetNews;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">YnetNews<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The last time such a species washed ashore in Israel was 2012, so inspectors from Nature and Parks Authority were dispatched to the scene, but they were unable to locate the carcass. They suspect it had drifted back into the sea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cAs soon as I received the photos from Uri, I understood this was a rare shark species,\u201d Guy Levian, deputy director of the marine unit at the Nature and Parks Authority, told YnetNews. \u201cWe sent the images to experts at the Sharks in Israel Association, who identified it as a gray sixgill shark. When we reached the location, we searched for the carcass but found nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"The rare sighting was made on Shoshanat HaAmakim Beach in central Israel.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"599\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/8627b3f1e760ab5c0929a2836368661b.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The rare sighting was made on Shoshanat HaAmakim Beach in central Israel.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"The last time a gray sixgill shark washed ashore in Israel was 2012.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"572\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/b31f1227dcce9259edc720a62a82abbf.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The last time a gray sixgill shark washed ashore in Israel was 2012.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The sighting was rare because the species live at great depths, with some documented at depths of over 8,000 feet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThe gray sixgill can reach a maximum length of about 6 meters [19.7 feet],\u201d Adi Barash, scientific director of the Sharks in Israel Association, told YnetNews. \u201cIt is brownish-gray in color, with relatively large green eyes, typical of deep-sea species.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/832-6-pound-record-bluefin-163021459.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Also on FTW Outdoors: 832.6-pound record bluefin tuna hit \u2018like atom bomb going off\u2019;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Also on FTW Outdoors: 832.6-pound record bluefin tuna hit \u2018like atom bomb going off\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Barash said it doesn\u2019t have a prominent dorsal fin like most sharks. Instead, it has a single dorsal fin positioned toward the rear of the body, close to the tail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cUnlike most sharks, which have five gill slits, this species has six, which is how it got its name,\u201d she told YnetNews.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Gray sixgill sharks are known to descend into deep water during the day and rise at night. Because it lives at great depths in the Mediterranean Sea, the species is less exposed to threats and is not currently classified as at risk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This article originally appeared on For The Win: <a href=\"https:\/\/ftw.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/outdoors\/2026\/01\/30\/rare-sixgill-shark-washes-ashore-israel-suddenly-disappears\/88423826007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Rare shark washes ashore in Israel, then suddenly disappears;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Rare shark washes ashore in Israel, then suddenly disappears<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nature enthusiast walking the shoreline in central Israel came across the carcass of a rare gray sixgill&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[803,29283,190102,207850,79,93144,201,207849],"class_list":{"0":"post-440997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-mediterranean-sea","10":"tag-nature-and-parks-authority","11":"tag-rare-shark","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-sixgill-shark","14":"tag-wildlife","15":"tag-ynetnews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}