{"id":282497,"date":"2026-02-13T16:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/282497\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T16:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:51:13","slug":"seriously-underestimated-shark-experts-looked-into-the-eyes-of-this-deep-sea-giant-and-were-stunned-by-what-they-saw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/282497\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cSeriously underestimated.\u201d Shark experts looked into the eyes of this deep-sea giant and were stunned by what they saw"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019d be forgiven for mistaking it for a mouldy sausage that got lost under the sofa for several years, but there\u2019s more to the Greenland shark than meets the eye.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cruising through the cold, dark waters of the Arctic deep sea, this blotchy grey shark<\/a> is the longest-lived vertebrate on the planet. Scientists have long believed that these ancient creatures \u2013 which can live for around\u00a0400 years<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 are almost blind, but a new study challenges that idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The idea that Greenland sharks have poor vision \u201cis because of their extremely long lifespan (some of the sharks swimming around today are older than Isaac Newton\u2019s laws of motion!) and little tassel-like parasites<\/a> that hook onto the front of their eyes,\u201d says\u00a0Lily Fogg<\/a>, a researcher at the University of Basel. \u201cWhat we found is, basically, the opposite.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Working with\u00a0Walter Salzburger<\/a>\u00a0at the University of Basel and\u00a0Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk<\/a>\u00a0at the University of California Irvine,\u00a0among other colleagues, they examined the sharks\u2019 eyes and were stunned by what they saw.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir eyes and retinas are actually intact and highly specialised for life in very dim light,\u201d says Fogg. \u201cEven in individuals over a century old, the cells and molecular machinery needed for vision are still there and still look healthy.\u201d The findings are published in\u00a0Nature Communications<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"GreenlandA Greenland shark swims through Arctic waters off the coast of Greenland. Credit: Ghislain Bardout | Under the Pole expedition<\/p>\n

Previous research has suggested that Greenland sharks had impaired vision, so Fogg wasn\u2019t expecting to discover anything remarkable. \u201cThen we looked at the eyes and realised they were still beautifully intact, even after more than a hundred years,\u201d she says. \u201cThat was the moment we realised the Greenland shark had been seriously underestimated.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unlike humans, who have rods (for seeing in dim lighting) and cones (for bright light) in their eyes, these sharks only have rods. <\/p>\n

This suggests that they likely don\u2019t see much detail or colour, explains Fogg. \u201cA good comparison is how humans see at night when we get up without turning on the light. You can\u2019t see colours or fine detail, but you can still make out shapes and navigate your surroundings,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy guess is that\u2019s probably similar to what the Greenland shark experiences. It might not sound like much, but if you live\u00a0most of your life\u00a0in near darkness, it\u2019s exactly what you need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ResearchersResearchers examine a Greenland shark near the University of Copenhagen’s Arctic Station on Disko Island in Greenland. Credit: Kirstine Fleng Steffensen and John Fleng Steffensen<\/p>\n

How these ancient sharks retain their vision over their long lifespan isn\u2019t yet fully understood, but the researchers have a theory that they want to dive into further. <\/p>\n

“One of the big problems with ageing tissues is that DNA gets damaged over time, which eventually leads to cell death,\u201d says Fogg. \u201cOur suspicion is that [Greenland sharks] may have evolved a very effective system for repairing DNA, almost like a ‘super DNA repair’ kit.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as being fascinating, this surprising discovery could benefit human healthcare. \u201cJust think about how many people experience deteriorating eyesight every year,\u201d says Fredrik Myhre, a marine biologist at WWF-Norway who wasn\u2019t involved in the study. \u201cNature can help us with solutions to human-related health challenges.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But protecting mysterious species such as Greenland sharks is not just important because humans might benefit. Learning more about this enigmatic fish \u201cwould enable us to protect the species more effectively against overfishing,\u201d says Myhre.<\/p>\n

Even though most of us will never see a Greenland shark in our lifetime, we don\u2019t want them to disappear from our waters. \u201cWe need to take better care of the ocean\u2019s sharks if we are to have healthy and well-functioning seas in the future,\u201d he adds. \u201cHumans are completely dependent on the ocean, and therefore also dependent on sustainable shark populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top image:\u00a0Greenland shark\u00a0in Arctic waters off the coast of Greenland. Credit: Ghislain Bardout from the Under the Pole expedition.<\/p>\n

More amazing wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You\u2019d be forgiven for mistaking it for a mouldy sausage that got lost under the sofa for several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-282497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}