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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Annaliese Smith in Greenland

To cull or not to cull: Greenland debates fate of world’s slowest shark

A large blunt-nosed shark with an open mouth and apparently no teeth
Greenland sharks can live for more than 400 years but as they only reproduce after 150 years, plans for a cull could devastate the population, say conservationists. Photograph: Eric Ste Marie

‘When I accidentally catch a shark, I bring it to my dogs,” Henrik Jensen, a 27-year-old from Greenland’s west coast, says casually. “I don’t let it back down because [the sharks] bully me and cut my lines.”

Jensen has fished for halibut in Ilulissat, Greenland’s third largest town, for a decade. He works an hour north of the town’s main iceberg-laden fishery, which sustains the livelihood of nearly 400 fishers. There, the halibut are bigger and more plentiful, but so are the Greenland sharks.

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