Greenland sharks keep their cool under fishing pressure
Daniel M Ripley, Ashleigh Donaldson · 2026
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Description
Daniel M Ripley and Ashleigh Donaldson report, in a commentary, on catch-and-release stress in Greenland sharks, drawing on fieldwork by Yuuki Watanabe and colleagues. Twelve sharks were caught, blood-sampled, fitted with GPS trackers, and released. The question matters because these ancient, slow Arctic sharks increasingly meet fishing gear, and nobody knew how badly capture harms them.
During capture their blood lactate and glucose, markers of exhaustion and stress, ran lower than in many other sharks. Released sharks swam hard for a while, then settled back to normal behavior within about 10 hours, and at least 90 percent survived the 30 days when capture deaths usually strike. Longer hooking did not raise lactate, supporting the idea that a calm, slow life blunts the ordeal. Cool Arctic surface water, near 3 degrees, may help too.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Daniel M Ripley, Ashleigh Donaldson |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 3 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |