Chapter 1: What happened with the Greenland shark in County Sligo?
Now, the stranding of the Greenland shark in Finnesclin in County Sligo was widely reported in Irish and international media over the past week. It was first reported to the Irish Whalen Dolphin Group by Leaving Cert students from Sligo Grammar, Hamid Chowdhury and James Winters O'Donnell.
Hello, how are you doing?
Hello, how are you? So Hamid, first of all, tell us about this shark, how you happened upon it.
Yeah, I know, it was an amazing find. Me and James were out on a run around Finnesclin When we came to a stop on the beach, not the beach, the harbour over there, beside the park, we looked down and we saw, we thought it was a rock at first, but then it was a bit of a weird shape to be a rock, so we thought it might have been a basking shark.
But then we went down and quickly realised that it wasn't a basking shark. We took a few photos and we called the Irish Dolphin and Whale Group and they asked us to send them some pictures. And we did and then She texted us back an hour later, I think, told us that it was a Greenland shark, and we were both amazed.
James, had you ever seen a shark before? I don't want to sound totally ridiculous, I mean in the flesh, and had you ever seen a Greenland shark?
To be honest, not really. I've never really seen a shark before, and definitely not a Greenland shark, because they're apparently very rare. But it was very exciting, actually, just coming across it. And what state was it in when you found it? It wasn't dead too long, I don't think. It didn't smell at all, to be honest.
So I'm just wondering, how, James, did you know to contact the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group?
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Chapter 2: How did the Leaving Cert students discover the shark?
Well, I believe we looked it up. I think that was the first thing we decided to do because we didn't want to leave it there because it was quite a beautiful creature. So I think we looked it up and then we just gave them a call and they were very helpful, to be fair. I believe they called out some experts to confirm what exactly it was.
I know, because it's such a rare and unusual find. I mean, these creatures can live for hundreds of years, I believe. Have you learned a lot about them in the intervening period since you found it?
Yeah, quite a bit. There's all the news articles and such.
I learned that their flesh is poisonous to humans if you eat it.
But listen, congratulations and thank you very much indeed for coming on and telling us about it today because that is some find.
Thank you for having us. It's been great, thank you.
So that was Hamid and James. Thank you very much indeed. And well done. What an extraordinary find. Dana, you're familiar with this shark, are you not? The Greenland shark.
Well, yes, indeed. The Greenland shark is a most amazing creature. How old can it be? I mean, the one that was washed up in... they reckon must be at least 150 years old because it was approaching sexual maturity. It was a male, it had claspers and they only get these. So it was only a young fella. Apparently they can live, the oldest of them, up to 500 years of age.
And a female, when she's gestating, the gestation period can last between 8 and 18 years. My goodness.
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Chapter 3: What was the condition of the shark when it was found?
Well, Ken Whelan has joined us now. He's our fishery scientist. Ken, you were in Greenland, I think, last year or the year before?
Yeah, I think it was, yeah, 2022, yeah. So the Greenland shark, as Eanna was saying, I mean, it's very famous, obviously, for being so long-lived. But not just the Greenland shark, but quite a number of different sharks are very important to all of those different islands. I was smiling when Eanna was telling the story about the Greenland shark that you were presented with.
Chapter 4: Why did the students contact the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group?
I was presented not with a Greenland shark, but with another...
type of shark in the Faroes I can still remember the ammoniacal smell that ammonia burning my nose I couldn't face it and I'm sorry I eat most things but I really couldn't I should have had the drink with it but the interesting thing about the Greenland situation at the moment I was giving a talk for the Oceanographic magazine in London a few weeks ago and we were talking about Greenland
all the attention is on Greenland now and to some extent I hope from an environmental point of view it might help because Greenland is changing and it's changing fast and it strikes me as very interesting that one of these poor creatures should arrive on our coast at the very time when there's such incredible changes happening around Greenland.
And one thing I pointed out during my talk in London was the fact that we talk a lot about the Northwest Passage. But in fact, the other side, the Northeast Passage, is one that everyone from a political point of view, from an environmental point of view, are starting to look at. Because the whole continent is beginning to actually see a situation where there's water either side of the continent.
This is shifting and moving everything.
What is the North East Passage?
And what is the North West Passage?
For the benefit of those who don't know, can you describe it vividly?
Yes, I can, yeah. Many, many years ago, a lot of the explorers tried to find this North West Passage. So what they were trying to do was they were trying to slip by, if you can imagine a map of Greenland and Canada on the far side.
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Chapter 5: How old can a Greenland shark get?
Hi, I'm good. Thank you for having me.
Was it you who identified the Greenland shark for James and Hamid? Because certainly somebody from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group did, and it was a woman, but they couldn't remember the name. Was it you? I'm just curious.
Oh, I wasn't the one who made the final identification. We actually had a few shark experts help us out with that as well to make that confirmation, such as Nick Payne and Taylor Chappell, who had a good look at it. But yeah, it had a very distinct smile now, that shark that kind of gave its identity away there.
Oh, really? You can tell a lot from a shark's smile.
Smell. You can, you can. Oh, smell or smile? Smile, smile. Its teeth are very distinctive and it definitely gave away what we were looking at there now, yeah.
Ken is asking, is there any records before now of Greenland sharks in Ireland? And he says, no, what do you say?
Ireland is technically still part of the Greenland Sharks distribution range. It is quite far south. You would expect them further north in the Arctic, the kind of sub-Arctic waters. But technically, Ireland and the northern part of the North Atlantic should still fall within its range. And I believe there's been...
less than a handful of sightings of sharks that were associated with fisheries, so potentially some deep-sea bycatch. But this is the very first time an animal has stranded, as far as anyone's aware, and the first time that we've had a, quote-unquote, coastal sighting then. Well, it was a stranding, but it was this close to shore and gave us access to the animal.
So in that way, it is incredibly unique to have had the chance to see that animal there yet.
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