The Blue Machine

The Greenland shark never goes anywhere in a hurry. But then it has no need to. An individual of this size was probably born before the earliest glimmerings of the industrial revolution, and has been gliding around these waters for 240 years. It’s thought that this species can live to be at least 300 years old (possibly more), doesn’t reach sexual maturity until it’s about 150 and keeps on growing throughout its life at about one centimetre each year. As far as we know, it’s the world’s longest-living vertebrate. This exceptional lifespan seems to be directly connected to the cold, which slows down the processes of life, 8 stretching out the shark’s existence by a factor of ten. This slow giant will spend its leisurely life in water that’s around 0 ° C, mostly hidden several hundred metres below the surface. One of the greatest mysteries carried by that baggy body is how it catches prey–adult Greenland sharks are found with stomachs full of fish like flounder and skate, and sometimes even with freshly killed seal.