Devanshi Cassana, a student at the University of Florida, worked alongside local fishermen to tag tiger sharks off the coast of Belize, home to the second-longest barrier reef.
After a full night of fishing, tagging and releasing, just as the team was about to head back to shore and begin reeling in nylons, they had something completely unusual at the end of one.
“She looked old, ancient.” “Like a long stone that came to life,” they described the animal.
“At first I thought it must be something else.” I knew it was an unusual discovery and that the fishermen around me had not seen anything like it since they have been doing it,” says Cassana.
The student sent the photo to Damian Chapman, director of the Shark and Ray Conservation Research Laboratory and Aquarium.
His answer was – the Greenland shark
Little is known about Greenland sharks, mostly because they live in very cold seas and at great depths. They are some of the longest-lived creatures in the world and can live for over 400 years.
The discovery led scientists to believe that Greenland sharks could be more widespread than previously thought and live even in tropical seas, but at greater depths than they would move in Arctic seas.
The place where it was found in the Caribbean Sea is the beginning of a great dive of the coral reef to a depth of 2,900 meters, which means that the water is cold enough for Greenland sharks.
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