100-YEAR-OLD GREENLAND SHARK DEATH BY MENINGITIS IS A WORLD FIRST

Greenland sharks are estimated to live to be several hundreds of years old, but one that washed up on British shores had its life cut short due to being infected with meningitis.

It wasn’t a propellor, coral reef, and it wasn’t Jack the Ripper, but the discovery of the disease is thought to be a world first by the team that examined the shark.

Scientists involved think the brain infection may explain why the shark was out of its normal deep-water home, and as a result stranded itself on a Cornish beach in March, where it sadly died.

The female 4ft long shark had damage to her fins and silt in her stomach, which strongly suggests she may have been alive when she was stranded.

Its death though is already helping provide researchers new information about the species, of which very little is known about.

The pathology team is part of the Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP). Rob Deaville, project lead for the CSIP, said: "This unfortunate and extraordinary stranding has allowed us to get an insight into the life and death of a species we know little about. Discovering that this shark had meningitis is likely a world's first.”

A research paper of the Greenland shark is set to be published at a later date, which will hopefully help reveal even more about this fascinating species of shark.

Words by Dean Newman

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