An extremely rare albino shark was found in the collection of the Auckland War Memorial Museum in New Zealand. Albino shark is a fish scientist at the National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). It was later noticed by Brittany Finucci’s collection review. Dr. A recent research article published in Finucci’s Journal of Fish Biology describes the finding as albino Lucifer shark (Etmopterus lucifer). Finucci visited the Auckland War Memorial Museum in 2018 to identify samples from the shark collection, and while working on hundreds of samples, he noticed the strange looking shark. Albino Lucifer shark looks very rare After Finucci noticed the albino shark, “I have never seen an albino shark before, it was quite unique. Sharks are normally dark, so it stood out. There was no indication that there was no color pigment when I looked at the animal.” He expressed his surprise in his words. Albinism is caused by the lack or absence of the pigment melanin responsible for color production. White feathers, skin, skin and sometimes red eyes are observed in albino animals. While albinism is common in humans and some animals, albino sharks are extremely rare. Dr. “After examining some literature, I couldn’t find anything that reported albinism in the lanternshark family, so my discovery was a first. We can’t say for sure how many sharks are albino, because it hasn’t been studied enough in the deep seas. But this is rare.” said. Lucifer shark is one of the smallest shark species in New Zealand and grows to just 50 cm. This species of shark can live up to 1000 meters in the west of the Pacific Ocean.
