Native to the cold Arctic waters, thousands of the sharks get caught and die in fishermen’s nets off Greenland every year. The beasts—which can be compared to the Great White Shark in size at seven metres (23 feet) and can weigh up to a tonne—are thrown back into the sea.
But at the Arctic Technology Centre (ARTEK) in Sisimiut in western Greenland, researchers are experimenting with ways of using the animal’s oily flesh to produce biogas out of fishing industry waste.
“I think this is an alternative where we can use the thousands of tonnes of leftovers of products from the sea, including those of the numerous sharks,” says Marianne Willemoes Joergensen of ARTEK’s branch at the Technical University of Denmark.
Joergensen, in charge of the pilot project based in the Uummannaq village in northwestern Greenland, says the shark meat, when mixed with macro-algae and household wastewater, could “serve as biomass for biofuel production.”
“Biofuel is the best solution for this kind of organic waste, which can be used to produce electricity and heating with a carbon neutral method,” she said.
Biofuel based on sharks and other sea products could supply 13 percent of energy consumption in the village of Uummannaq with its 2,450 inhabitants, according to estimates. The Associated Press
Next year, Joergensen plans to run tests at an organic waste treatment plant in a project financed by the EU in Uummannaq, using a mixture of shark meat, wastewater and macro-algae to create a fish mince that can be used to produce biogas.
“Entire trawlers are sometimes full of sharks and they are caught everywhere, especially off the east and west of Greenland, to the fishermen’s great dismay,” says Bo Lings who used to work on a big trawler.
Leif Fontaine, the head of Greenland’s fishing and hunting association added, “It’s a large predator that devours fish, squid, seals and other marine life, and it also ruins the lines and nets of the halibut fishermen.”
Fishing is Greenland’s biggest export industry, with halibut being its second-biggest product after shrimp.
The Inuits once hunted the shark, which has “become a problem for the environment”, for its razor-sharp teeth that they used to make knives and for its liver oil that was used to light homes.
One of ARTEK’s founders Joern Hansen explains, “There are too many sharks in the nets and they just get thrown back.”
Greenlanders typically throw their fishing industry waste and household wastewater into the sea. RedOrbit
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