The only sharks found in the Arctic are so called sleep sharks. These include the Greenland shark which we heard about from the guest lecturer in Ocean Use and Management. These sharks are large (4-5 meters), and very slow moving. As we learned in class these sharks have been said to feed off of seals near sable island. They also feed off of flounders. There positioning in the Arctic food web was not known until very recently as they have not been very heavilly studied. Recent studies have shown thier tissue to contain a high level of organochlorine contamination. These are compounds that are long lasting pollutants and they concentrate as they move up the food web(bioaccumulation). What this means for the ecology of the species is that it is feeding at a high trophic level (fourth and fifth level). This is where the seals come in as they are at that trophic level. These sharks still tend to live a very long time, however the possible implications from the contaminents likely imapct tings such as reproduction and could have worst impacts in future generations.
Information found for this was from Fishes an introduction to Icthyology 5th edition, Peter Moyle.
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