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The creature, which is believed to be predatory, was found 6,700ft deep by a remotely operated submarine.

With deathly pale flesh, vacant eyes and gently waving fins, it moves through the deep like a spectre.

And it's far more widespread than suspected; being sighted north of the equator for the first time.

(Image: MBARI)

Experts say this type of ghost shark is the pointy-nosed blue chimaera, usually found near New Zealand or Australia.

This footage – the first of the species alive in its natural habitat – was taken near the US states of California and Hawaii.

Dave Ebert, from the Pacific Shark Research Center at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, said the sub wasn't even looking for wildlife.

He told National Geographic: "The guys doing the video were actually geologists. Normally, people probably wouldn’t be looking around in this area."

Unlike many creatures of the deep, he said, the predator was not shy around the glaring lights and actually touched the submarine.

"It’s almost a little comical," he added. "It would come up and bounce its nose off the lens and swim around and come back."

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, which released the video, compared the ghost shark with its famous cousin.

(Image: MBARI)

"Like sharks, their bodies are not stiffened by bones, but by plates and bone-like bits of cartilage," it said on its website.

Ghost sharks, better known as chimaeras, are the closest living relatives of sharks but branched off from them 400 million years ago.

Other deep-sea predators include the ninja lanternshark, which was discovered last year more than 1,000m beneath waves of the Pacific Ocean.