If a Greenland shark had mastered the use of the English language and happened to believe in Greek mythology then I would image that a comment along the lines of:

“I’m Blind, thank Poseidon”

would come from it’s many toothed mouth the moment it was blinded by a little white copepod attaching itself to it’s eye.

This lazy beast lives at great depths underneath thick ice in the cold North Atlantic Ocean and grows up to a huge 7 meters long. Being such a lazy lump of muscle this slow stoner like creature really does not have the ability to catch the prey that it manages to feed on. In fact it is so docile that people have been known to lure them to the surface with seal entrails and just drag them out of the water.

Being so lazy, that’s where the Parasite comes in. Shortly after birth a small white parasite will permanently attach itself to each one of Greenland sharks eyes creating permanent blindness. Now the deep waters are so murky anyway that the shark would not be able to see very far even with the gift of sight, so it really isn’t a big loss. It is widely believed that the little white worm like creatures actually attract the sharks next meal and chomp, dinner is served. Sharks without parasites have been observed to die very quickly.

They call this kind of relationship a symbiotic relationship and it happens with sharks and many other creatures and is found constantly throughout nature. Hopefully I will find some more interesting relationships and write about them soon.

If this amazing creature interests you then I definitely suggest some further reading:
http://www.marinebiodiversity.ca/shark/english/greenland.htm
http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/topics/lh_somniosus.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_shark

Images sourced from: http://www.fredshark.net/Classifications/squaliformes/requingroenland.htm

Tags: blind shark, greenland shark, greenland shark and parasite, north atlantic shark, parasites, symbiotic relationships