A camera recording a cow carcass on the seafloor southeast of Hainan Island captured eight Pacific sleeper sharks. In a 2025 report, Han Tian described the sharks attacking the bait, queuing to feed and making eye-retraction movements. The carcass was part of whale-fall research—not a natural whale fall—and the footage documents an encounter at one site, not a population or nursery.
What did the camera record?
The cow carcass was deployed at 1,629 meters on the continental slope in the northern South China Sea, southeast of Hainan Island. Tian’s 2025 report describes eight Pacific sleeper sharks (Somniosus pacificus) at the carcass, characterizing the sighting as the first known occurrence in the region. That means the first documented record known to the report’s authors; it does not establish when the species arrived or how widely it occurs nearby.
Video showed multiple sharks launching attacks on the carcass and queuing while feeding. Tian also described eye-retraction movements in the footage. The movements were observed, but this observation did not test why the sharks retracted their eyes; a protective function should therefore be treated as an interpretation, not a demonstrated result.
How did the sharks behave?
Feeding and queuing
The footage captured more than a single shark visiting bait: multiple individuals attacked the carcass and waited in feeding queues. These are observations of behavior at this particular food source. They do not, on their own, show how the sharks usually feed elsewhere.
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Different behavior in the size groups
The report grouped sharks above and below 2.7 meters. In the footage, the larger group attacked more aggressively, while the smaller sharks circled more cautiously. The 2.7-meter division was the study’s way of grouping observations, not an established biological threshold separating two kinds of Pacific sleeper shark.
The individuals were reported as female. A small baited-camera observation cannot determine the population’s sex ratio or show that the location is a nursery.
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Why use a cow carcass to study a whale fall?
A whale fall is a large carcass on the seafloor. It delivers a concentrated supply of food and organic material that can support deep-sea communities. Researchers can use cow carcasses as accessible experimental analogues to investigate some ecological processes associated with large falls. A cow carcass is not a whale, however, and observations around one should not be presented as a complete account of what happens around a natural whale fall.
Other experiments offer context, but measured different things from the shark footage:
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| Study | Setting or deployment | Reported finding |
|---|---|---|
| Tian, Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research, 2025 | Cow carcass at 1,629 m, northern South China Sea | Eight Pacific sleeper sharks; footage documented attacks, feeding queues and eye-retraction movements. |
| Experimental Whale Falls in the South China Sea, Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research, 2023 | Cow carcasses at 650 m, 1,600 m and 3,400 m | Documented experimental deployments at those depths; these are not the depths of Tian’s shark observation. |
| Hilário et al., Marine Ecology, 2015 | Deep Atlantic cow-carcass experiment | The study reported a macrofaunal assemblage distinct from background fauna. At 18 months after deployment, only skeletal material remained. |
The studies concern carcass-associated life, but their findings are not interchangeable: Tian reported shark behavior at one deployment, while the other examples provide depth, community and carcass-decay context. The 18-month result belongs to the Atlantic experiment; it is not a general timetable for carcass decay.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does this sighting establish—and what does it not?
It establishes that eight Pacific sleeper sharks were recorded at a cow carcass at 1,629 meters in the northern South China Sea, and that the footage captured particular feeding behaviors. Because the observation came from a single deployment, it does not estimate how many sharks live in the region, establish a resident population, prove a nursery, or explain a range expansion. A first known regional record is evidence of a documented occurrence, not proof that the species was previously absent.
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