“When I accidentally catch a shark, I feed it to my dogs,” says Henrik Jensen, a 27-year-old from Greenland’s west coast. “I don’t release it because the sharks bully me and cut my lines.”
Jensen has fished for halibut in Ilulissat, Greenland’s third-largest town, for a decade. He works an hour north of the town’s main fishery, which is filled with icebergs and supports nearly 400 fishers. There, the halibut are bigger and more plentiful, but so are the Greenland sharks.
“This year I’ve lost around 6,000 hooks in total. Sometimes we lose 30,000 Danish krone [£3,440] a day,” Jensen says.
The Greenland shark is one of the least understood species on the planet. It is the world’s slowest shark and the second-largest carnivorous shark after the great white, according to the Shark Trust. It can reach six to seven metres in length and live for more than 400 years. For a long time, it was thought to be completely blind, though scientists have recently found this may not be true.
The sharks live across a vast range in the deep, cold waters of the north and west Atlantic. But when they try to feed on the northern fisheries’ main catch — Greenland halibut and Atlantic cod — they often get tangled in fishing gear and brought in as bycatch.
This uneasy coexistence has been documented since targeted fishing for the sharks’ liver oil ended in the 1960s, but it came to a head earlier this year. The Avannaata municipality, whose administrative seat is Ilulissat, approved a controversial plan to cull 1,000 sharks, offering 300 krone for every Greenland shark heart.
Lars Erik Gabrielsen, mayor of the municipality, says: “We need to safeguard the income of fishermen and the catch so that we can continue to eat the foods that we have relied on for generations.”
For many who fish inshore in small teams on dinghies, this brought a longstanding problem to a head. Timotheus Petersen, chair of the fishing association in Kullorsuaq, says: “Our longlines are expensive — one costs 1,599 krone. When the sharks cut our lines, we cannot finish fishing. We have to spend more money and buy new gear.”
The plan was eventually dropped after the government questioned its legality, but the possibility of a future cull remains.
In approving the cull, Avannaata council cited a similar scheme from the early 2000s in the former Aasiaat municipality, where a bounty of 200 krone was offered. According to a 2007 report from the Danish Technical University, another scheme between 1986 and 2001 in the former Uummannaq municipality brought in 19,697 hearts.
But the marine conservation group Oceans North Kalaallit Nunaat (ONKN) argues that culls do not solve the problem, pointing to the species’ migratory nature — it can swim up to 1,200 miles (2,000km) a year. “Sharks removed in north-west Greenland would quickly be replaced by individuals arriving from other regions,” ONKN warned.
Many fishers also do not think 300 krone is worth the effort of hauling a shark onboard. “It’s difficult to catch them,” Jensen says. “You need bigger hooks and chains for the lines, so I don’t think anyone wants to try.”
But the debate around a possible cull alarms conservationists. “If somebody says, ‘I’m going to cull a couple of thousand Greenland sharks,’ that’s a disaster in my opinion,” says Prof Nick Dulvy, a marine conservationist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
The Greenland shark is believed to become sexually mature at 150, which means the species replaces itself extremely slowly and will not rebound quickly from a cull. It is still recovering from targetedFishing continued through the 19th and mid-20th centuries, peaking in 1948 when 58,000 were caught. “They are probably—biologically—the most sensitive species in the ocean to overfishing,” Dulvy says. Globally, an estimated 3,500 sharks are caught each year as bycatch, and the population continues to decline. Greenland’s fishing community points to their long-standing problem with the sharks but does not explain why it has suddenly worsened. Jenseeraq Poulsen, director of ONKN, suggests it is due to growing pressures within a fishing industry that accounts for about 25% of Greenland’s GDP. “If every Greenland shark in Baffin Bay vanished tomorrow, the inshore fishery in Avannaata would still face too many boats working a quota under pressure, rising costs and no alternative employment,” he says. “When margins are narrow, a longstanding nuisance becomes intolerable.” Even though the price of halibut keeps rising, according to the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, the average size of the fish is shrinking every year. While Jensen maintains he can still make a good living from fishing, he describes setting fewer hooks and bringing in fewer fish, suggesting this is due to overfishing by offshore trawlers. For some of those fishing these waters, however, the shark is not the main cause of lost gear. “There are more and more ‘ghost lines’ and they are too heavy to pull up with the machine we use,” Jensen says. Ghost lines are discarded or lost gear that can tangle with new lines, breaking equipment and trapping marine life. Halibut Greenland, a cooperatively owned fish-processing company in Ilulissat, provides funds to clean up ghost gear in the area, which ONKN sees as more effective than a shark cull. Poulsen also proposes a gear-loss compensation scheme, as well as funded trials of acoustic shark deterrents. Rebekka Nygård Bak, an adviser to Greenland’s Ministry of Fisheries, Hunting, Agriculture and Self Sufficiency, suggests new bycatch-friendly equipment regulations could be a solution. She says a campaign for better bycatch reporting will also be key to any next steps. For Poulsen, the sharks and those fishing these waters are two parts of the same ecosystem, facing growing pressures in changing seas. “The shark is the visible, tangible version of a problem whose real drivers are structural,” he says.
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs Greenland Debates the Fate of the Worlds Slowest Shark
Beginner Questions
What shark is Greenland debating
The Greenland shark a large deepcoldwater shark found in the North Atlantic and Arctic Its famous for growing extremely slowly and living for centuries
Why is it called the worlds slowest shark
Because it swims very slowly and also grows and matures incredibly slowly Some individuals are estimated to live 300500 years
What does cull mean
Culling means deliberately killing a certain number of animals in a population usually to reduce their numbers or address a problem
Why would anyone want to cull Greenland sharks
Supporters argue that reducing shark numbers could ease competition for fish reduce sharks caught as fishing bycatch or protect other marine species These arguments are contested
Why are people against culling them
Because the sharks grow and reproduce so slowly that removing even a few could harm the population for decades or centuries Many also see culling as cruel and ecologically risky
Are Greenland sharks endangered
Theyre currently listed as vulnerable globally meaning they face a high risk of extinction in the wild
Intermediate Questions
What makes Greenland sharks so vulnerable to culling
They mature very late reproduce slowly and have few pups A population cant quickly replace animals that are killed
Is the Greenland shark actually a threat to fisheries
Its caught as bycatch in fishing gear and can damage catches but it isnt a major predator of commercially valuable fish The scale of its impact is debated
What do scientists say about culling
Most shark biologists oppose it warning that it would be unsustainable and could cause longterm damage to a species we still know very little about
What alternatives to culling are discussed
Bycatch reduction tools modified fishing gear spatial protections better monitoring and sustainable fishing practices
Has a cull ever been approved
No largescale cull has been implemented The debate is ongoing mainly in Greenland and among Arctic fishing communities
Advanced Questions
How do scientists estimate Greenland shark age
Mainly through radiocarbon dating of eye lens proteins since the sharks lack hard structures like otoliths that are used for other fish
