Florida researcher finds Arctic shark swimming in Caribbean waters

A half-blind shark previously only seen in frigid Arctic waters was seen in a coral reef off Belize by a researcher studying the animals.

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Devanshi Kasana, a Ph.D. candidate at Florida International University’s Predator Ecology and Conservation lab, was working with fishermen in Belize to tag tiger sharks when they spotted a Greenland shark, the university said in a news release. This is the first time a Greenland shark has been seen in warm water.

The shark was described as looking “old — ancient, even — and more like an elongated, smooth stone that had sprung to life. It had a blunt snout and small pale bluish colored eyes,” the university said.

“At first, I was sure it was something else, like a six gill shark that are well known from deep waters off coral reefs,” Kasana said in a statement. “I knew it was something unusual and so did the fishers, who hadn’t ever seen anything quite like it in all their combined years of fishing.”

Kasana texted photos of the shark back and forth with other experts, who determined it was from the sleeper shark family and likely a Greenland shark or a hybrid between the Greenland shark and Pacific sleeper shark, WFLA reported.

“I am always excited to set my deep water line because I know there is stuff own there that we haven’t seen yet in Belize, but I never thought I would be catching a Greenland shark,” Omar Faux, one of the fishermen, said in a statement.

Greenland sharks, which average 8-14 feet in length, have skin that is poisonous to humans when raw but edible once dried, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. Greenland sharks live in water so cold they are unlikely to encounter human swimmers and are not considered a threat.

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration believe that Greenland sharks live extremely long lives, with a study examining the eyes of Greenland sharks identifying a female between 272 and 512 years old.

The waters off Belize where the shark was found drop to 9,500 feet, which means the water would be cold enough for a Greenland shark to thrive, FIU said.

Kasana’s findings were recently published in the journal “Marine Biology.”

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