A post mortem revealed that a rare Greenland shark discovered washed up on a Cornish beach died of meningitis. The finding was certainly a world’s first, according to scientists who inspected the remains.
Marine experts believe the female spotted just outside Newlyn Harbour in Cornwall in March is over 100 years old. Greenland sharks may live to be over 400 years old, therefore it is still classified as ‘juvenile’.
As per scientists, there is insufficient evidence to link the disease to man-made stresses like pollution. The autopsy performed by the Cornwall Marine Pathology Team is believed to be the first of its sort in the United Kingdom. Veterinary pathologist James Barnett of the Cornwall Marine Pathology Team said that the brain was ‘discoloured and congested’ and the fluid around the brain was hazy. A bacterium strain was identified from the fluid surrounding the brain and is likely to be the source of meningitis.
The pathology team from the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) discovered damage on the fin of the 3.96m long shark and silt in her stomach, suggesting she was alive when she stranded. They normally live more than 2.5 kilometres under the Arctic and North Atlantic water surface.
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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, but the significance of this in terms of any wider stressors is unknown. Ultimately, like most marine life, deep-sea species such as Greenland sharks may also be impacted by human pressures on the ocean but there is not enough evidence at this stage to make any connections’.
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