A half-blind shark with a life span of a staggering 500 years was spotted thousands of miles from its home for the first time.

Scientists were fascinated to capture the rare sighting of the 16ft Greenland shark, which is native to the freezing Arctic waters but was found cruising in the Caribbean off the coast of Belize, Central America.

Video shared by local news channel Channel 5 shows the battered shark covered in scars and bite marks after years of battles.

READ MORE: Fisherman's record-breaking 7ft sea beast weighing 28st is largest ever caught by a Brit

The shark has a small head with a short snout and tiny eyes, which are often useless due to a parasite that attaches itself to their corneas.

The rare species is known to feed on fish and squid and to scavenge the carcasses of large mammals like horses and polar bears.

Researchers from the Mote Marine laboratory and Aquarium made the discovery in May when they went on a trip to the Glover's Reef Marine Reserve but only released the video recently.

The crew spent two hours pulling the shark to the surface and they thought they had pulled up a "monster" from the deep sea.

Hector Martinez told the media: "It looked this big, this long, but like this wide. So, I was like what the hell was that.

"As it kept coming closer it looked like a monster.

"I was like, s***, is this thing going to jump in the boat. But, once we floated it up we saw what it was. We didn’t think it was a Greenland shark.

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"It has that name for a reason, so it belongs to Greenland. I think it's up in Canada a lot but that is one of the main amazing parts – it doesn't belong in Belize."

They released the apex predator back in the water and sent the video to other researchers at the lab to identity the shark.

Demian Chapman, director of sharks and rays conservation research, said it is the first time in history that a Greenland shark has been found in the western Caribbean Sea.

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