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NEWS
Rare Greenland Shark captured
Arctic shark that eats reindeer caught off Portland. Bet Santa is happy...When the stern trawler Castella Rosa hauled its net after fishing in 420 metres of water in an area known as the “Main Drag” off Portland, the skipper Craig, who is better known by the handle “Golfball,” was amazed to find that he had captured a Greenland shark.
The prehistoric Greenland Shark is a member of the Somniosidae family of sharks also known as sleeper sharks. Generally only described as occurring in the North Atlantic around Greenland in the sub-Arctic this guy was a little lost.
Greenland sharks are the only shark comparable in size to the Great White Shark. But that’s where similarities end, as the strange shark has an extra gill slit to all other sharks and is said to come from another (prehistoric) era.
This specimen was 4.8 metres long and was estimated to weigh 1.5 tonnes. Its girth was approaching 3m. Greenland sharks have been reported to reach 5.8 metres.
The species of shark preys on fish and squid. But Eskimos have also reportedly found seals, reindeer (in one case an entire carcass), polar bears and horses in their stomachs.
Greenland sharks must be stealthy because their top speed has been calculated at only 1.6 miles per hour. One study has suggested that they prey on sleeping seals.
Video footage of what is believed to be a Greenland shark was recorded at 2773 metres deep. A short documentary film featuring footage of a live specimen can be seen below.
The sharks are known to live up to 200 years. But it gets stranger: a parasitic worm is found on the sharks, feeding off their eyeball tissue and rendering them blind. So they do extremely well catching their flighty prey.
The bulk of this article comes courtesy of the South East Trawl Fishing Industry Association newsletter. We republished this story out of respect for World Fisheries Day. The weird, wayward shark was landed earlier this year.
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Written byBoatsales Staff
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