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Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus) are not currently classified as Endangered worldwide. The IUCN lists them as Vulnerable (2020), while Canada’s 2025 COSEWIC assessment lists them as Special Concern. Their risk is serious because they grow exceptionally slowly, may take roughly 150 years to mature, and can live for centuries. The largest documented pressure is accidental capture in fisheries; climate-driven changes in Arctic habitat and prey add an important but still uncertain risk. Scientists do not yet know how many mature Greenland sharks remain.
What conservation status do Greenland sharks have?
“Vulnerable” is one of the IUCN’s threatened categories, but it is not the same designation as “Endangered.” The IUCN changed the species from Near Threatened to Vulnerable in its 2020 reassessment. Canada’s Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) assessed the species as Special Concern in 2025. These labels apply to different assessment systems and should not be treated as contradictory population counts.
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| Assessment | Status | What it means here |
|---|---|---|
| IUCN global assessment (2020) | Vulnerable | The species faces a high risk of decline in the wild, but the available evidence does not establish the IUCN category Endangered. |
| COSEWIC, Canada (2025) | Special Concern | The species may become threatened because of biological characteristics and ongoing pressures, including fisheries interactions. |
The categories describe risk, not a precise tally of surviving sharks. Greenland sharks occur in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters, and the evidence available for one country or fishery cannot automatically be applied to the entire species.
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There is no reliable global estimate of the number of mature Greenland sharks. COSEWIC recorded the number of mature individuals as unknown and did not conduct a quantitative extinction analysis. Reported population-decline estimates range from 1% to 100%, an enormous spread caused by uncertainty about age at maturity, fecundity, gestation, the length of the reproductive cycle, and mortality. A precise “how many are left?” figure would therefore be misleading.
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The uncertainty is itself a conservation problem. A species that reproduces slowly can be in trouble before a conventional survey detects a clear collapse. Greenland sharks are difficult to count across deep, remote, and widely distributed habitat, while fishery records do not cover every vessel, gear type, or location consistently. Incomplete observer coverage, logbooks, and geographic reporting also affect bycatch estimates.
What the available numbers can and cannot show
- COSEWIC estimates that at least 3,500 Greenland sharks are caught as fisheries bycatch globally each year. The 2025 assessment warns this is probably a gross underestimate because reporting is incomplete.
- For Canadian fisheries, the detailed assessment estimates approximately 1,688 to 2,208 sharks annually. This is an estimate of fishery interactions, not a population total.
- Neither figure tells us what proportion of the world population those sharks represent, because the denominator—the number of mature sharks—is unknown.
Why does Greenland shark biology make losses so serious?
Greenland sharks have an unusually slow life history. Slow growth, very late maturity, and exceptional longevity mean that replacing an adult removed by a fishery can take many decades. COSEWIC’s summary states: “The remarkably slow growth, late maturity (approximately 150 years), and longevity, make it vulnerable to overfishing.”
Centuries of potential lifespan
NOAA Ocean Service reports that carbon dating of eye-lens proteins estimated a 5-metre female to be 272–512 years old (source page accessed 2026). The result is an age estimate for that individual, not a claim that every Greenland shark reaches the upper end of that range. NOAA also says the shark may not reach sexual maturity until it is more than a century old.
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Late maturity and long generations
COSEWIC uses approximately 150 years to maturity and estimates a generation time of 150–200 years. Those figures mean that a decline caused by removals can persist for several human generations before natural recruitment restores numbers. They also make short-term increases in catch, even if small compared with catches of faster-growing fish, potentially consequential.
Why an adult loss matters disproportionately
Older sharks represent decades or centuries of survival before they can contribute fully to reproduction. Removing an immature shark eliminates future reproductive potential; removing a mature female can reduce the production of young over a very long interval. Because key reproductive details remain uncertain, managers cannot safely assume that the population will compensate quickly for additional mortality.
What is killing Greenland sharks?
Accidental capture in commercial fisheries
COSEWIC identifies human activities as the most significant threat. Greenland sharks are incidentally caught throughout their range in trawl, demersal longline, and gillnet fisheries. They may be hooked, entangled, or brought aboard with the intended catch. The global estimate of at least 3,500 bycaught sharks per year comes from the Government of Canada and COSEWIC’s 2025 assessment; incomplete reporting means the actual number is likely higher.
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Bycatch mortality can occur before a shark is released, through injuries, exhaustion, pressure changes, or time out of the water. Even when a vessel releases a shark alive, the fish may die later. Post-release survival for Greenland sharks is largely unknown, so a “live release” record should not be interpreted as proof that the animal survived.
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Directed artisanal and small-scale fisheries continue in Iceland and Greenland. These fisheries differ from accidental capture in mixed-species commercial operations because the shark is intentionally targeted, but both forms of removal matter for a species with such a slow replacement rate. The available assessment does not provide a complete, current total for directed catch across all locations.
Why bycatch figures are probably low
- Observers do not cover every trip or vessel.
- Logbooks can omit, aggregate, or misidentify rare species.
- Remote Arctic and sub-Arctic fishing grounds are unevenly monitored.
- Sharks that are lost from gear or die after release may never appear in landing records.
These limitations explain why the published 3,500-shark figure should be read as a minimum estimate rather than a ceiling.
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Does climate change affect Greenland sharks?
Yes, climate change is recognized as an additional threat, although its direct population effect is not yet quantified. Arctic regions are warming faster than the global average. Changes in sea-ice extent and timing can alter where Greenland sharks travel and where their prey are available.
Potential pathways of impact
- Habitat shifts: Warming water and changing ice conditions may move suitable habitat, forcing sharks to alter their distribution or seasonal movements.
- Prey dynamics: Changes in ice-associated ecosystems can change the abundance, timing, or location of prey, affecting feeding opportunities.
- Fitness and energy budgets: A shark may need to travel farther or spend more energy to find suitable temperatures and food.
- Population dynamics: Combined changes in survival, movement, and reproduction could influence abundance even if no single mechanism is dominant.
COSEWIC lists climate change and severe weather as recognized threats, especially habitat shifting and temperature extremes. The assessment also stresses that the species’ sensitivity and adaptive capacity are not well known. It is therefore accurate to say climate change could worsen risk, not that a measured percentage of the current decline is already attributable to warming.
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Some important protections prohibit retention, but they do not eliminate capture or guarantee survival after release.
Canadian measures
Canada’s Fisheries (General) Regulations and groundfish licence conditions prohibit retaining Greenland sharks and require that captured sharks be released alive with as little harm as possible. These rules reduce intentional landing in covered groundfish fisheries. They do not prevent a shark from entering the gear, being injured during capture, or dying after release.
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization measure
In 2022, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) agreed to ban retention in all fisheries operating in its regulatory areas. A retention ban is a direct control on landed catch, but its conservation effect depends on compliance, accurate identification, reporting, safe handling, and the shark’s post-release survival.
How to judge whether a protection is effective
| Management question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Is retention prohibited? | Stops vessels from legally keeping the shark, but does not stop accidental capture. |
| Is bycatch monitored? | Reveals how often sharks enter gear and where interactions occur; weak coverage can hide mortality. |
| Are release procedures specified? | Handling requirements can reduce avoidable injury while the animal is returned. |
| Is post-release survival measured? | Without survival data, live-release counts may overstate the benefit of a ban. |
| Does management include climate and habitat change? | Fishing rules alone may not address shifting habitat, prey, or temperature conditions. |
What would reduce the risk most?
Because the central threat is fishery interaction combined with extremely slow reproduction, effective conservation needs more than a single prohibition. Priorities include:
- Improve species identification and reporting. Consistent records by gear, location, depth, condition at release, and fate would narrow the uncertainty around the minimum 3,500-shark global estimate.
- Expand independent monitoring. Observer or electronic-monitoring coverage should include fisheries and regions that currently have sparse data, especially where trawl, demersal longline, or gillnet effort overlaps shark habitat.
- Reduce encounters. Gear modifications, avoidance measures, and spatial or seasonal adjustments can lower the number of sharks caught in the first place; a retention ban cannot do that alone.
- Standardize low-harm release. Training and enforceable handling procedures should minimize time out of water, physical trauma, and unnecessary movement.
- Measure delayed mortality. Tagging and follow-up studies are needed to determine how many released sharks survive, because current post-release survival evidence is largely absent.
- Track climate-linked changes. Long-term monitoring should connect sea-ice conditions, temperature, prey, movements, and body condition so that management can adapt as habitat shifts.
What remains unknown?
The largest gaps are demographic rather than merely geographic. Scientists need better estimates of age at maturity, fecundity, gestation, reproductive-cycle length, natural mortality, and survival after release. These parameters determine whether a given level of bycatch is sustainable. Until they are measured, the safest interpretation is precautionary: a small annual removal can be serious when replacement may take a century or more.
Uncertainty should not be mistaken for evidence that Greenland sharks are safe. Nor does it justify claiming that the species is already globally Endangered. The defensible conclusion from current assessments is narrower and more useful: Greenland sharks are globally Vulnerable, of Special Concern in Canada, exposed primarily to fishery bycatch, and difficult to manage because their population size and trend are poorly known.
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