Video footage of an octopus riding on the back of a shark has enraptured global audiences since it was released by researchers at the University of Auckland earlier this week.
The New Zealand cohort of ocean experts spotted the unlikely duo, a Maori octopus perched atop a shortfin mako shark, in the Hauraki Gulf during the summer of 2023.
The researchers were on the lookout for a feeding frenzy when they spotted the pair casually riding the waves in tandem and playfully coined them “sharktopus.”
According to a recent blog post by Rochelle Constantine, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Auckland and one of the researchers who discovered the unusual sight, the team first spotted a large dorsal fin, signaling a shark in their vicinity. Upon closer inspection, they noticed an “orange patch on its head.”
At first, they assumed it was an injury or that the shark had bumped into a buoy. To confirm their suspicions, the team released a drone and dropped a GoPro camera into the water. That’s when they discovered the pair.
“An octopus perched atop the shark’s head, clinging on with its tentacles,” Constantine wrote.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
“This ‘sharktopus’ was a mysterious find indeed,” she added. “Octopus are mostly on the seabed, while shortfin mako sharks don’t favour the deep.”
The octopus opted for a speedy ride, she explained, since the shortfin mako is the fastest shark species, swimming up to 50 km/h.
Constantine’s area of expertise is the Hauraki Gulf — Tīkapa Moana, Te Moananui-ā-Toi — where she studies the behaviour of sharks during the summer months.
The gulf is inhabited and visited by many types of sharks, including bronze whalers, which are often seen by divers and fishers in shallow waters, and, more commonly, smooth hammerheads.
Large open ocean species such as the dusky shark, the blue shark and the shortfin mako, “otherwise known as the octopus taxi shark,” she joked, are increasingly present in the region.
A blue shark. Photo by Riley Elliott/ University of Auckland.
Photo by Riley Elliott/ University of Auckland
Less is known about smaller sharks living near the seabed, such as lemon fish and native carpet sharks, but global shark populations are in steep decline, due to overfishing, climate change and low reproductive rates.
Constantine says the “sharktopus” encounter is a “reminder of the wonders of the ocean.”
“One of the best things about being a marine scientist is that you never know what you might see next in the sea. By supporting conservation initiatives, we can help to ensure that such extraordinary moments keep happening,” she concluded.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.