El Monstruo, possibly from Malpelo.Malpelo, Cocos,
Lebanon,
Roatan - and now the Canary Islands!
The
Smalltoth Sand Tiger, aka
El Monstruo is one of my favorite Sharks, this because it looks so positively
Badass but also because despite of my best efforts, i.e. some very stupid very deep dives where it supposedly lives, it has always managed to elude me. Plus, its
geographical range intrigues me as it pops up, and this regularly, in the most diverse locations, possibly ascending to SCUBA depths because of some mating or pupping event.
Case in point, they appear to be
regular Summer visitors of
El Hierro in the Canaries.
Photographer Francis Pérez has published
a set of stellar pictures, of which the two below also depict a retinue of
Pseudocaranx, this very much like our Bulls during the cooler months when a possibly undescribed species of
Pseudocaranx, a Genus that was so far believed to be antitropical, appears to ascend from deeper depth and associate with the larger Sharks and Queensland Groupers.
And here is Francis' video - enjoy!
