--- title: "Watch Thousands of Sleeping Sharks Form a “Carpet” on the Ocean Floor" description: "A bizarre-looking species of shark in Australia has been caught on video schooling on the ocean floor in a carpet formation." date: "2024-08-19" modified: "2024-08-19" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/thousands-sharks-carpet-ocean-floor" categories: - "Health & Medicine" - "Sleep" tags: - "australia" - "marine animals" - "sharks" - "the digest" --- # Watch Thousands of Sleeping Sharks Form a “Carpet” on the Ocean Floor ![A bizarre-looking species of shark in Australia has been caught on video schooling on the ocean floor in a carpet formation.]() *\Image: NESP-IMAS\* ## Second Spotting A huge school of bizarre-looking sharks in Australia has been [caught on video]() sleeping on the ocean floor in a "carpet" formation — and it's not the first time researchers have caught them there, either. Named [Port Jackson sharks]() after the part of Australia where they were first discovered, thousands of these blunt ridge-nosed predators were found, [according to a press release]() from the University of Tasmania, blanketing the floor of a marine park as they slumbered. "There were thousands of sharks," explained UTAS researcher Jacquomo Monk, "tightly packed like a carpet spread across the seafloor." According to the statement, this incredible footage was captured by a camera-equipped autonomous aquatic robot operated remotely from a government research ship floating above. Incredibly, scientists from the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies said they spotted the sharks schooling in this peculiar manner in almost the exact same area they'd seen them do it before, six years prior. While it's clearly an amazing thing to witness, Monk noted that marine scientists don't really know why sharks tend to "aggregate" this way — and that's not the only unknown in this situation, either. https://youtu.be/ohfnnXT7kxw ## In Aggregate Known as an "[aggregation site]()," these shark schooling cluster spots are fairly commonly observed in the world of marine research, despite no one knowing exactly why marine life tends to do it. While the Port Jackson sharks had been seen in that same spot before, the team realized this time around that "the Beagle gathering appears to be only for females," as Monk said. This makes a certain amount of sense given that this species tends to segregate by sex except when mating, but there are still more questions than answers. "We don’t know exactly why the females are here," Monk said in the press release. "Perhaps they are feasting on the local delicacy — doughboy scallops — before the long trip north to lay their eggs." While scientists will need to do plenty more research to get to the bottom of this phenomenon, there is one thing that seems pretty certain: "seeing them again does tell us that the area is important to them," Monk concluded. **More on sharks:** [*Leg Washes Ashore After Shark Attack, Surgeons Hope to Reattach*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()