IceSharks.org :: Past Expeditions

In 1995, natural history filmmakers, Nick Caloyianis and Clarita Berger embarked on an expedition to document the mysterious and little-known Greenland shark living in the frigid waters of Canada's high Arctic. They were looking to include possible footage of this secretive shark in a one-hour special, "Ultimate Guide: Sharks", which they were producing for the Discovery Channel. Nick's footage would change the scientific community's scant knowledge about this ghoulish shark -- it also provoked many questions which are still unanswered. Most puzzling is how these sharks, partially blinded by parasites that attach to their eyes, locate and capture prey.

In 1996, Nick and Clarita returned during the Arctic summer, this time on an assignment for National Geographic Magazine. This photographic project continued the following spring -- when seven-feet thick Arctic ice covered the frigid (28.5 degrees F.) water. Nick invited an accomplished parasitologist, Dr. George Benz, to join him and to help study this unusual shark.

This collaboration resulted in first published images of the creature swimming under Arctic ice which appeared in an article written for the September, 1998, issue of the magazine. George's work helped confirm the taxonomic identity of the shark as Somniosus microcephalus and it also established the ecological relationship between the Greenland shark and its unusual eye parasites, Ommatokoita elongata.

In spring of 1999, Nick and George returned to the Arctic--this time with Greg Skomal, a highly respected scientist who studies movements of large oceanic fishes.

The Team journeyed across several hundred miles of ice with Inuit guides as they followed the movements of the Greenland sharks. Greg and George's research was remarkable as it was the first time fishes had been acoustically tracked under Arctic ice. Some of the Team's fascinating work was documented by Nick and included as a segment for "Jurassic Sharks", a British television special broadcast in July, 2000, on the Discovery Channel. Today, the research combined with the documentary sequences -- and those captured by a deep sea Remote Operated Vehicle--continues to help answer some of the baffling questions surrounding the life history of these enigmatic sharks.

But with each answer comes new questions... How does this partially blind and slow, but apparently successful, predator capture faster-moving prey such as fish and seals?... Does it utilize the parasites dangling from its eyes as lures?... Why, of almost 400-plus shark species worldwide, has this shark evolved to live in these icy 28.5 degrees F. waters?... These are some of the questions the Team hopes to answer in future expeditions.