An extremely rare, bright orange colored shark has been discovered in Costa Rica by a group of fishermen.
At times, nature throws up some incredibly rare phenomena for the world to marvel at. The sight of rare and unique animals is what captures the attention most, especially if it looks like it came from a different planet.
Well, in Costa Rica, a group of fishermen stumbled upon the first ever bright orange colored shark. The orange shark – and no, we’re not talking about Blinky from The Simpsons here – was found near Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica.
Photos of the shark were actually posted back in 2024, but Marine Biodiversity only released their findings on the creature in August 2025.
Rare orange shark with white eyes found
As per BBC, it ended up being orange because of xanthism, a condition that is extremely rare in sharks. The condition happens when a creature has “a loss of darker pigments,” meaning a brighter color comes through.
This has been seen previously with yellow sharks – commonly known as Lemon Sharks – but the orange is a first.
Additionally, researchers believe this orange shark is even rarer because of its white eyes. The deep sea creatures more commonly have darker colored eyes, but there are cases of them having white eyes as well.
What it would mean, however, is that the orange colored shark would have two different conditions – xanthism and albinoism.
Photos of the shark have captured the internet’s attention in a big way too, with many viewers being blown away by what they’ve seen.
“Nature just dropped a limited-edition shark skin,” one said. “I didn’t know orange sharks were a thing. That is wild!” another added. “It looks so beautiful,” another chimed in.
