Greenland Shark found on Cornish beach died of Meningitis.

A Greenland Shark, Somniosus microcephalus, which was found stranded on a beach near Newlyn Harbour in Cornwall, England, in March 2022, has been found to have died of Meningitis. The Shark, which was spotted on the beach on 13 March and recovered by a recreational boating company two days later, after washing back out to sea, was subjected to a necropsy (the term 'autopsy' is only used when the subject is Human) by the Cornwall Marine Pathology Team, which discovered it had been suffering from an inflamation of the membrane surrounding the brain (Meningitis). Later analysis of tissue taken from this membrane found that it was infected with the Gammaproteobacterium Pasteurella, known to cause Meningitis but mostly associated with domestic Mammals and never before reported from a Greenland Shark.

 

A Greenland Shark, Somniosus microcephalus, washed up on a beach near Newlyn Harbour in Cornwall, in March 2022. Cornwall Marine Pathology Team.

The Shark was found to be a female, and is calculated to have been about 100 years old, and therefore considered to have been a juvenile in a species that is thought to be able to be able to live for over 400 years. Greenland Sharks are a coldwater Sleeper Shark species found in the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. They are piscivores (Fish eaters) and never attack Humans (species of Shark which target Marine Mammals will sometimes attack Humans, though they usually spit us out), and for the most part are not consumed by Humans either, due to the high levels of trimethylamine oxides (which are both toxic and foul smelling) in their flesh, though in Iceland Greenland Shark meat detoxified by fermenting is eaten as a delicacy, kæstur hákarl.

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Icelandic fishermen fired for cruelty to Greenland Shark.

Two Icelandic fishermen have been fired after cutting the tail off a Greenland Shark, Somniosus microcephalus, throwing it back into the water, then posting film of themselves mocking the wounded animal onto Facebook. Halldór Gústaf Guðmundsson and Gunnar Þór Óðinsson were crew members on a Bíldseyar SH 65-owned vessel before the incident, but were quickly fired after an outcry on social media, with the company issuing a statement that it believed in 'good working practises and responsible handling of resources and the environment in general'. The men may also face criminal charges from authorities in Iceland or Denmark (the later because the incident happened in Danish territorial waters off the coast of Greenland). The Shark is thought to have no chance of surviving without its tail.

An injured Greenland Shark, Somniosus microcephalus, swimming away from an Icelandic fishing vessel after having it's tail removed. Facebook.

Greenland Sharks are a coldwater Sleeper Shark species found in the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. They are piscivores (Fish eaters) and never attack Humans (species of Shark which target Marine Mammals will sometimes attack Humans, though they usually spit us out), and for the most part are not consumed by Humans either, due to the high levels of trimethylamine oxides (which are both toxic and foul smelling) in their flesh, though in Iceland Greenland Shark meat detoxified by fermenting is eaten as a delicacy, kæstur hákarl.

 A healthy Greenland Shark at a landslide debris field between Alvin and Nantucket Canyons, off the coast of New England, in August 2013. Okeanos Explorer/NOAA/Wikimedia Commons.

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