New Study Finds Extreme Longevity in White Sharks

 In the first successful radiocarbon age validation study for adult white sharks, researchers analyzed vertebrae from four females and four males from the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. Age estimates were up to 73 years old for the largest male and 40 years old for the largest female. “Our results dramatically extend the maximum age and longevity of white sharks compared to earlier studies,” said Li Ling Hamady, MIT/WHOI Joint Program student and lead author of the study published in PLOS ONE. “Understanding longevity of the species, growth rate, age at sexual maturity, and differences in growth between males and females are especially important for sustainable management and conservation efforts.” Age determination in fish relies primarily on analyzing growth increments in mineralized tissue, such as otoliths (ear bones), vertebrae, and fin rays. These grow throughout a fish’s life, adding annual rings, similar to growth rings in trees. Estimating age in white sharks can be challenging. While vertebrae are constructed of layers of tissue, laid down sequentially over an individual’s lifetime, the alternating light/dark banding patterns can be narrow and less distinct than in other species, and the bands don’t necessarily signify annual growth. “Traditionally, ageing sharks has relied on the assumption that band pairs are annual. In many cases this has been proven correct for part or all of a species life, however in more and more cases this is being disproven,” said coauthor Lisa Natanson, a fisheries biologist at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) lab in Narragansett, R.I. In previous studies, which assumed annual deposition of growth bands, the oldest white shark individuals identified were from the southwestern Pacific Ocean at 22 years old and the western Indian Ocean at 23 years old. For this study, researchers took advantage of radiocarbon produced by thermonuclear device testing done during the 1950s and 1960s. Radiocarbon mixed from the atmosphere into the ocean, and was incorporated into the tissues of marine organisms living during that time period. The rise in radiocarbon — measured as ∆14C — gave researchers a specific spot in time pinpointed in the vertebra layers, which can be used as a “time stamp” to help determine the age of an animal.