It's a 26ft Jaws and it sucks... (Mysterious arctic shark slurps up seals whole)

The Sun (U.K.) / Florida Museum of Natural History ^ | July 12, 2008 | VIRGINIA WHEELER

[Stoat]

NEWS

 

 

It's a 26ft Jaws and it sucks...

Big sucker ... the shark

 

By VIRGINIA WHEELER

Published: Today

 

A MASSIVE Arctic shark that sucks up seals whole and may live for 200 years is being studied by boffins for the first time.

The mysterious Greenland shark’s mouth with hundreds of teeth is UNDER its body — so it cruises along the ocean bed scooping up prey.

Baffled boffins say whole reindeer and polar bear heads have also been found in stomachs of the deep-sea monsters, which can be 26ft long.

They are cannibalistic but their flesh is poisonous to any other creature.

Researchers at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Canada are radio-tagging the sharks to find out more.

Scientist Steve Campana said: “They cruise along slurping up fish and seals. They are abundant — but we don’t have a clue about them.”

[Stoat]

Under The Ice Lurks A 'Strange' Arctic Monster

 

 

Sharks in the News

Under The Ice Lurks A 'Strange' Arctic Monster

May 6, 2008

Release from: Tom Spears
Ottawa Citizen (Canada)
 

Canadian fish scientists are opening a window into the mysterious world of the Greenland shark -- the top predator in the Canadian Arctic about which almost nothing is known.

Except this, says Steve Campana of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography: "These are very, very strange sharks."

Its meat is poison. Its mouth is far under its body. It has almost no spine. It's so lethargic that it doesn't even snap at the scientists who hook it and attach a radio to it.

And it may live 200 years.

Mr. Campana and Aaron Fisk of the University of Windsor took their team to the sea ice 300 kilometres north of Iqaluit, camping out in a frigid plywood shed in April to tag and release Greenland sharks.

Only one other big shark in the world is almost unknown -- the extremely rare deep-ocean "megamouth."

Why study the Greenland shark?

In the eastern Arctic "this is the apex (top) predator, the king of the food web, along with the polar bear. There's a sister species in the western Arctic. And as with any ecosystem, if you don't know anything about the apex predator, you're in a lot of trouble figuring out what's going on."

Everything about this fish is odd, Mr. Campana says.

"They are really the antithesis to the fast-swimming great white and mako (sharks)."

The cold water might make them slow, but even in warmer water they just cruise along the bottom, slurping up fish, and occasionally seals. The seals may be dead when the sharks eat them. No one really knows.

Researchers are hoping that samples of bone may hint at a fish's age; the team will look for radioactive elements released during atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons, to show which fish were alive in the 1960s.

The Greenland shark can grow to eight metres and has hundreds of sharp teeth.

"Just running your hand lightly along them you can slice yourself wide open," says Mr. Campana.

"When we found a dead shark we would open up its stomach. Every single one was jam-packed with food. A lot of it was large fish," but there were some baby seals.

It's possible the shark scavenged dead seals, but seals are also known to be curious, and some young ones may have wanted too close a look at the shark.

The sharks are incredibly abundant, says Mr. Campana, "and yet we don't have a clue how fast they grow, how old they get, where they give birth, how many they give birth to..."

The team is using radio tags, which don't hurt the sharks, to record information about their living conditions (water temperature and light) and location. The tags are programmed to release months later and then "pop up" to the surface and radio their findings to a satellite.

Inuit fisherman often catch them by accident, hooking a turbot that a shark then bites on the hook.

The meat is poison if cooked like normal fish, so full of urea that it takes boiling and re-boiling to make it safe.

[central_va]

They are cannibalistic but their flesh is poisonous to any other creature.

This applies to lawyers also.

[Stoat]

“Mysterious Huge Seal-Sucking Arctic Shark Ping”

[ryan71]

???New to me!

[the_devils_advocate_666]

What’s that thing hanging off the shark’s eye?

[mbraynard]

bwahahahaha.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

“Boffins”? What are boffins?

[Maverick68]

“Why study the shark?”, cuz that’s how you get grant money....

[ushr435]

Nice photo of Hillary! She’s looking much better since she suspended her campaign :-) Course, she’s still poisonous to others.

[BOBTHENAILER]

Now we know the real reason Polar Bears are shrinking in number, if they are, that is.

[A Cyrenian]

One of Obama’s supports.

[ikka]

Shark is being represented by American Trial Lawyers Assoc. at no charge - a professional courtesy.

[BOBTHENAILER]

What’s that thing hanging off the shark’s eye?

Regurgitated seal intestines.

[Disturbin]

[pcottraux]

“Mysterious Huge Seal-Sucking Arctic Shark Ping”

You heard the man!

[central_va]

Now that is a real liberal nightmare, two endangered species eating each other.

[ClearCase_guy]

“Boffins”? What are boffins?

A family of hobbits living in the Shire. They live near the Bracegirdles and Proudfoots, just west of Hobbiton. I didn't know they were into marine biology.

[nuconvert]

I believe these are called Sleeper sharks

[TheThirdRuffian]

““Why study the shark?””

Weird poisons and nasty creatures are useful for all sorts of things.

Alligator blood, for example, has just recently been discovered to contain an anti-biotic that can kill the nastiests of staff infections (makes sense, given alligators live in nasty swamps).

Poke along and discover about God’s world.

[Stoat]

“Boffins”? What are boffins?

BRITISH-AMERICAN TRANSLATION ASSISTANCE:

Boffin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the slang of the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, boffins are scientists, engineers, and other people who are stereotypically seen as engaged in technical or scientific research. The word conjures up an image of men in thick spectacles and white lab coats, obsessively working with complicated apparatus. Portrayals of boffins emphasize both their eccentric genius and their naive ineptitude in social interaction. They are, in that respect, closer to the "absent-minded professor" stereotype than to the classic mad scientist. Alec Guinness's character in the film The Man in the White Suit (1951) is a classic example of an eccentric and obsessed boffin.

A boffin in action: Dr Alexander Thorkel (Albert Dekker) from Dr. Cyclops (1940)

The English-to-American Dictionary

boffin n wonk. Someone who is particularly knowledgeable about his/her subject. It doesn’t quite carry the respect implied in “expert” — calling someone a “boffin” suggests that he has body odour and is a virgin. Boffins are invariably male.