Greenland shark found thousands of kilometers away from its home (PHOTO)  

The shock of researchers and scientists when they found the giant shark off the coast of Belize

On April 22 fishermen off the coast of Belize near the Caribbean hooked a strange blue-eyed shark that looked ancient.

Researchers were shocked to discover that the unusual fish could be a Greenland Shark, as it was the first time such a giant shark had been found off the western Caribbean Sea, near the world’s second longest reef. , according to a Florida International University press release. 

The strange shark was caught on Glover’s Reef off Belize, and the crew immediately knew they had caught something unusual. ” I knew it was something unusual, and so did the fishermen, who had never seen anything like it in all their years of fishing ,” said Devanshi Kasana, a doctoral candidate at Florida International University who was a member of the crew and head of the new study.

Unfortunately, they were unable to get a genetic sample as a storm was approaching and forced the crew to immediately release the shark for its own safety. 

For the new study, Kasana and her colleagues pored over footage and photos of the shark taken when it was hooked and found that it shares key features with bowhead and other Pacific sharks, such as a rounded snout, low and rounded pectoral fins and an eye parasite. The shark was also sluggish and slow moving, as sharks usually are when caught.

The waters where Kasana and the fishermen found the shark are quite deep. The spot of sea found ranges from 1,600 feet to 9,500 feet deep, meaning it has the cold water needed for a Greenland shark to survive.

Greenland sharks still remain an enigma to scientists. What we know about them so far is that they tend to occur in the icy waters of the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. This species moves slowly and also grows slowly, reaching 7 meters in length and weighing up to 1.5 tons , according to National Geographic. It lives over 400 years and according to a 2016 study, this shark can live between 300 and 500 years . 

You will find more and more detailed information in the research published in the journal Marine Biology .