| Summary: | extending life, also known as cryogenics. In fact this is essentially what the nematodes were being subjected to. The present theory that the same thing is essentially extending the life of one of the largest species of shark seems to only add fuel to the fire that a human might survive such a process. In 2016, the English High Court allowed a 14-year-old cancer patient to be cryogenically frozen in the hopes that when woken she might reemerge in a world where she could be cured of her illness. She said, “I want to live and live longer and I think that in the future they might find a cure for my cancer and wake me up.” (30) While the Greenland sharks lifespan is a marvel of nature, this adaptation for a seemingly eternal life is not found throughout the shark population. In fact the common maximum age of any shark species is around 45-50 years (11). For species such as the blue shark and tiger shark, it is significantly shorter, ranging anywhere from 15-25 years. Occasionally, a tiger shark might live to see fifty. With special emphasis on the tiger shark in comparison with the Greenland shark, we might be able to discern how these similar, but vastly unique, creatures poses such massive differences in their longevity of life. (31) The tiger shark is easily recognized by its rounded snout and silted nostrils and also by its dark grey stripes that fade with age. It is these stripes that inspired its name. This shark was first universally named in 1635 as the “Tiger of the Sea.” This apex predator commonly migrates along the coast between the Atlantic, Caribbean, Pacific and Indian oceans while still maintaining a presence in freshwater river mouths and estuaries. Tiger sharks prefer shallow temperate tropical waters; however, they have a presence in the deep open ocean surrounding the Polynesian and Hawaiian islands. In a study conducted by the University of Hawaii, 15 Tiger sharks were surgically implanted with ultrasonic transmitters in the hope that the team could study the migration patterns of this wide traveling species. (31) These transmitters would send pulse signals to buoys strategically placed throughout the island chain for around 800 days. The results showed that these animals come and go in no real pattern but that the juveniles seem to stay in deeper water, most likely to avoid larger sharks that would cannibalize them. (11) This species is slightly smaller than its Artic counterpart, only growing between 4-6 meters in length. Again in contrast to the slow growing Greenland shark, the tiger shark is almost rapid in its maturation. Past studies of growth show that it seems the animals that frequent the Hawaiian coast don’t mature as equally as the same species in another part of the ocean. However, many of these studies come under scrutiny for using “invalidated vertebral ring counts.” Consequently, after further review it was concluded that in fact the growth rates of the Hawaiians tiger shark population are equal to the growth rates of tiger sharks living elsewhere. 38
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