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Behind The Lens: Face-To-Face with An Ancient Predator – The Greenland Shark – Photos and text by Amos Nachoum, Big Animals Global Expeditions
The Arctic was silent, except for the crunch of ice under our boots as we crossed Baffin Island in the winter of 1996. Lancaster Sound stretched out in front of us—a vast, frozen expanse that seemed to go on forever. In this frozen world, isolation felt like a second
against the cold. And then I saw it—a hulking gray mass, gliding up from the depths. The Greenland shark moved with a slow, deliberate grace toward the bait, as if it had all the time in the world. Its size and age were staggering—a relic from another era, a creature that had outlived wars, generations, entire civiliza- tions. My heart raced, but I stayed calm. I raised my camera and took a few shots, knowing I had to act quickly. But it wasn’t just about the shark—I was here to capture some- thing even rarer—it was about the parasites that clung to its eye. At first glance, when I met the shark on its left side, I didn’t see the parasite. I took a dozen images anyway,
skin—tight, suffocating, yet familiar. Each day was a test of patience and endurance, as I searched for a creature that felt almost mythical: the Greenland shark. Before dawn, we would cut through the ice—one hole to
dive, another to tether me for safety. The cold was relentless, gnawing through my gear and sinking into my bones. But the real challenge wasn’t just surviving the freezing temper- atures—it was finding the shark. We used seal carcasses as bait, remnants left behind by polar bears. My Inuit guides would scour the frozen landscape for them, and when
making sure I captured some- thing of this elusive predator. I then repositioned myself, gliding beneath the shark, moving from its left side to its right. We were 45 feet under the ice, and the water shim- mered with an otherworldly light, deep blue, glowing, and faintly illuminating what I had been looking to capture— dangling grotesquely from
The Greenland Shark: Ancient Predator
they found one, we’d lower it into the inky black water, hoping the scent would summon the ancient predator. Days bled into weeks. Some days, the bait was gone— snatched by the shark while I remained unaware beneath the ice. Other days, it hung there, untouched, suspended like a ghost in the frigid water. My frustration grew as I stayed longer and longer underwater, pushing my body to its limits. It wasn’t just about surviving the elements—it was about wrestling with time itself. The Greenland shark, a creature that has an estimated lifespan of two to five hun- dred years, had no need to hurry. But I was running out of time. By the fourth week, I had lost over 30 pounds. My drysuit had become loose, and icy water began seeping in, biting at my skin. Each dive felt like a losing battle. On one par- ticularly grim afternoon, I was ready to call it quits. I sig- naled to my guide to start pulling up the bait. But just then, something shifted—a faint tremor in the water, barely per- ceptible. I froze, holding my breath, every muscle tense
the shark’s cornea—a parasite, rising like a tiny flag in the current. I pressed the shutter again and again, capturing the shark and its companion. After the dive, I surfaced—cold, exhausted, but exhila- rated. My Inuit guides, who had been watching from above had been able to clearly see the shark, and they shared my excitement. The shark’s slow, deliberate movements mir- rored the Arctic itself—ancient, enduring, and unhurried. This creature and parasitic companions, has drifted through the centuries, surviving unchanged as the world above has been transformed beyond recognition. In that moment, beneath the ice, I felt a profound con- nection—not just to the shark, but to the deep, cold un- dercurrents of the natural world. Time moves differently there, stretching and bending, as life persists in ways we can barely understand.
Baffin Island, 1996. Nikon RS, 18mm lens, 1/250 sec, f-8, Provia 400, pushed to 1600 ISO.
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