The Greenland shark is not only one of the largest shark species on the planet, often growing up to 23 feet long, it’s also one of the longest living vertebrates known as well, sometimes living for hundreds of years. But recently biologists discovered one of these sharks, which usually make their home in the cold Arctic and North Atlantic, in the Caribbean.
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00:00 [Music]
00:04 This is what is known as the Greenland shark.
00:06 It's not only one of the largest shark species on the planet,
00:09 often growing up to 23 feet long,
00:11 but it's also one of the longest living vertebrates known as well,
00:14 sometimes living for hundreds of years.
00:17 In fact, experts believe they don't even reach sexual maturity until age 150.
00:22 A recently biologist discovered one of these sharks,
00:25 which usually makes their home in the cold Arctic and North Atlantic,
00:28 in the Caribbean.
00:29 The researchers were monitoring tiger shark activity just off the coast of Belize,
00:33 but instead one of their lines caught what they describe as a, quote,
00:37 "very slow-moving sluggish creature under the surface of the water"
00:41 that looked like something that would exist in prehistoric times.
00:44 The researchers say the coral reef they were studying goes down to depths nearing two miles,
00:48 something more akin to the Greenland shark's natural habitat.
00:51 The sharks, which can sometimes live up to 500 years,
00:54 live in extremely deep areas moving slowly as they slowly age.
00:58 Now scientists are keen to figure out whether the one they discovered in the tropics grew up there
01:02 or simply migrated.
01:04 Because if it's the former, it raises the question,
01:06 where else in the vast deep of Earth's oceans could these aged sharks be found?
01:11 (upbeat music)
01:14 (upbeat music)