Scientist plans to tag Greenland sharks
Deep water Arctic species rarely studied, says researcher
CBC News
Posted: Sep 25, 2012 1:09 PM CT
Last Updated: Sep 25, 2012 1:45 PM CT
Ocean Tracking Network researchers prepare to tag a Greenland shark in Cumberland Sound in 2010. (Iva Peklova/University of Windsor)
A team of scientists is travelling up Baffin Bay this week hoping to learn more about Greenland sharks, one of the Arctic's more mysterious species.
Nigel Hussey with the University of Windsor said the tags will help track the species he calls an "enigma.” Greenland sharks tend to stay in very cold, very deep water so they're not harvested, and rarely studied.
But Hussey said more and more are being caught as bycatch, tangled in the nets of Nunavut's growing commercial turbot fishery.
"There's concern that up until the present, the Arctic is a relatively pristine system, and if suddenly we've got these developing fisheries throughout the Arctic area, they could really start to impact the Greenland shark population," he said.
Hussey will travel on board the Government of Nunavut's research vessel Nuliajuk north from Clyde River to Scott Inlet where he plans to catch and tag about 15 or so sharks.
Hussey wants to track the animals by satellite over several years, to learn more about their behaviours and their numbers. He said sharks have already been tagged in Cumberland Sound and near Resolute.
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