Rare, age-old shark washed up in Cornwall dies of meningitis

An age-old shark found washed off a Cornwall beach has died of meningitis, according to autopsy results.

THE Greenland shark is incredibly rare, while the species can live over 400 years. This means that the female shark found just outside Newlyn Harbor in mid-March is considered young by marine biologists.

Very little is known about the species, which usually lives at least 2.5 meters below the surface of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans, and its necropsy is the first to be performed in the United Kingdom.

It is just the second Greenland shark that was pulled from the waters of the United Kingdom.

At 3.96 meters long, the shark had damaged fins and mud on its stomach, suggesting it may have been alive when it ran aground.

Although it is the first report of meningitis in the species, scientists say it is too early to link the disease to anthropogenic factors in the environment, such as ocean pollution.

The autopsy was performed by the Cornwall Marine Pathology Team, which is part of the Zoological Survey Program (CSIP) of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

Veterinarian James Barnett, of the Cornwall Marine Pathology Team, said that his brain shark it was “discolored and compressed”, while the fluid around the brain was cloudy.

A bacterial strain was isolated from the fluid and is believed to be the cause of meningitis.

Skynews

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