Abstract
We report a dead, 229-cm-long Pacific sleeper shark, Somniosus pacificus, discovered in 1998 along the shore at Point Hope, Alaska. This is the first definitive record of this species from within the Arctic Circle, the first definitive report of a shark from the Chukchi Sea, and the first report of a shark other than a Greenland shark from within the Arctic Circle.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the community of Point Hope, Alaska for realizing the importance of this discovery and for collecting the shark; principal Richard Patton and his students at Tikigaq High School for performing the shark necropsy and recording valuable data used in this report; Ella Kowunna for encouraging A.K. Sr. to collect the shark for the students at Tikigaq High School; and Catherine Schloss, Joyce Shaw, and Marjorie Williams (all Gunter Library, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory) for library assistance. Abraham Kowunna Sr. died not long after he collected the shark; any lapses contained herein rest on the shoulders of the remaining authors.
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A. Kowunna Sr. is deceased
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Benz, G.W., Hocking, R., Kowunna, A. et al. A second species of Arctic shark: Pacific sleeper shark Somniosus pacificus from Point Hope, Alaska. Polar Biol 27, 250–252 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-003-0589-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-003-0589-6