Biology of the Greenland shark <i>Somniosus microcephalus</i>

MacNeil, M. Aaron; McMeans, Bailey C.; Hussey, Nigel E.; Vecsei, Paul; Svavarsson, Jörundur; Kovacs, Kit M.; Lydersen, Christian; Treble, Margaret A.; Skomal, Gregory B.; Ramsey, Mike; Fisk, Aaron T.

doi:10.1111/j.1095-8649.2012.03257.x

Cited by 109 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Mar Ecol Prog Ser 468: [255][256][257][258][259][260][261][262][263][264][265] 2012 European coast in the Northeast Atlantic (MacNeil et al 2012). There have also been observations of Somniosus sp.…”

Section: Resale or Republication Not Permitted Without Written Consenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The known geographic range of the Greenland shark extends from the northern reaches of Baffin Bay southward to the east coast of Nova Scotia in the West Atlantic and from waters around Svalbard southward in deep waters as far as Spain along the European coast in the Northeast Atlantic (MacNeil et al 2012). There have also been observations of Somniosus sp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Archival pop-off tag tracking of Greenland sharks Somniosus microcephalus in the High Arctic waters of Svalbard, Norway

Fisk

Lydersen²,

Kovacs³

2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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The Greenland shark Somniosus microcephalus is the largest fish in Arctic waters and a significant predator that is likely numerous, but little is known about its movement patterns or habitat preferences. In June 2008 and 2009, 20 archival pop-off tags were deployed on Greenland sharks in coastal waters in Svalbard, Norway (~80°N), to address this knowledge gap. Over the period June to December, 14 of the tags reported data. The swimming depth of the sharks was 111 ± 74 m (mean ± SD), but they occupied waters from the surface down to a depth of at least 1560 m (the depth limit of the tags), which is the deepest confirmed record for this species. The sharks displayed a wide range of depths within each 6 h time bin collected by the tags, with no obvious diel movement pattern. They experienced temperatures from −1.5 to 7.4°C (mean ± SD = 3.8 ± 1.4°C). The average depth of swimming increased and temperatures experienced by the sharks decreased from June through December. Most individuals moved north from the tagging area, and travelled a range of distances during their variable deployment times, but most tags popped off < 500 km from the tagging site. The average distance travelled varied from 0.6 to 16.6 km d −1. Two sharks travelled 725 and 980 km, respectively, representing the most northerly (82.4°N) and easterly (40.8°E) locations documented for this species. The movements of the tagged sharks suggest that this species likely ranges broadly in northern waters and likely hunts throughout the water column in Arctic seas.KEY WORDS: Distribution · Elasmobranch · Polar · Pop-up archival tags · Swimming depth · Water temperature Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog Ser 468: [255][256][257][258][259][260][261][262][263][264][265] 2012 European coast in the Northeast Atlantic (MacNeil et al. 2012). There have also been observations of Somniosus sp. in deep waters (> 2000 m) off the coast of Georgia, USA (Herdendorf & Berra 1995), and in the Gulf of Mexico, but these individuals have not been confirmed to be S. microcephalus (Benz et al. 2007).The movements and habitat preferences of Greenland sharks across the species' vast geographic range are largely unknown. Traditional fish marking studies on the west coast of Greenland in the late 1940s documented that 1 shark travelled ~1500 km, but most tags were recovered in the general tagging area (Hansen 1963), although the overall tag recovery rate was low and coastally biased. Three pop-off archival tags were deployed on Greenland sharks in the St Lawrence Estuary, Quebec, Canada, for periods up to 66 d. These sharks generally inhabited deep (325 to 352 m), cold (−1.1 to 8.6°C) water, but they did spend time near shore in shallower water (< 60 m), and they displayed some diel patterns in their vertical movements (Stokesbury et al. 2005).Greenland sharks are commonly observed in the North Atlantic by researchers, fishermen and sealers (Dunbar & Hildebrand 1952, Templeman 1963, but no actual abundance estima...

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Section: Resale or Republication Not Permitted Without Written Consenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archival pop-off tag tracking of Greenland sharks Somniosus microcephalus in the High Arctic waters of Svalbard, Norway

Fisk

Lydersen²,

Kovacs³

2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…We collected the following data from the literature: time since birth at maturity is 156 years (Nielsen et al 2016), length at birth is 40 cm (MacNeil et al 2012), maximum length is 640 cm (Bigelow andSchroeder 1948 in MacNeil et al 2012), maximum litter size is 10 pups for a 500-cmlong female (Koefoed 1957). The length at maturation was taken to be 480 cm after (MacNeil et al 2012).…”

Section: Data and Pseudo-datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, we include length-weight relationships reported in Leclerc et al (2012), Nielsen et al (2014) and length after 16 years from a unique case of recapturing a tagged animal (Hansen 1963in MacNeil et al 2012. The gender of the recaptured animal is not known.…”

Section: Data and Pseudo-datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comment on the ecophysiology of the Greenland shark, Somniosus microcephalus

Augustine

Lika

Kooijman³

2017

Polar Biol

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The recent finding that the Greenland shark, Somniosus microcephalus, reaches a life-span of almost 4 centuries and attains sexual maturity around 1.5 centuries, made us wonder what metabolic differences were responsible for these seemingly extreme values, compared to the related and better known spurdog Squalus acanthias. We studied this in the context of the dynamic energy budget (DEB) theory for metabolic organisation, which was applied to some 700 animal species from all large phyla and all chordate orders. The referenced data, estimated parameters and implied properties for all these species are published in the online Add-my-Pet collection, which provides a frame of reference for metabolic and life history properties. Given the few known data on S. microcephalus, we were able to estimate ageing parameters and gestation time, by application of the standard DEB model. We inferred that a recently estimated life-span of 392 years is probably too short for life at 2°C, rather than too long. The ageing acceleration is only slightly smaller than that of the spurdog, and the gestation time is very likely between 8 and 18 years with the implication of around 200-700 pups per life-time. The low body temperature and high maximum reserve density of S. microcephalus could be identified as the causes of its long life-span. We see the latter cause as an adaptation to a life in the deep sea sporadically preying on big carcasses, where it is necessary to survive long spells of starvation. This application of the standard DEB model shows that it can be applied in situations where few data are available and how implied properties (gestation) can be used to constrain parameter values. The methods used here could be further developed by fisheries biologists working with deep sea species for which very little is known.

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A Selection of Special Environments

Chapman

Bolen

2015

Ecology of North America

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Biology of the Greenland shark Somniosus microcephalus

Cited by 109 publications

References 76 publications

Archival pop-off tag tracking of Greenland sharks Somniosus microcephalus in the High Arctic waters of Svalbard, Norway

Archival pop-off tag tracking of Greenland sharks Somniosus microcephalus in the High Arctic waters of Svalbard, Norway

Comment on the ecophysiology of the Greenland shark, Somniosus microcephalus

A Selection of Special Environments

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