Late-Maturing Pacific Sleeper Sharks Can Take Decades to Reach Full Size

This bus-length shark may spend decades just growing up.

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Deep-sea shark populations often recover far more slowly than shallow coastal species due to delayed maturity.

Pacific sleeper sharks grow extremely slowly, with life-history patterns indicating that reaching full adult size can take many years, potentially decades, in cold deep-sea environments.

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💥 Impact (click to read)

In waters near freezing, metabolic rates remain low, so adding each meter of length is a long-term biological investment, meaning some of today’s largest individuals began life generations ago.

Such prolonged growth amplifies vulnerability to fishing pressure, because removing a single mature giant can erase decades of survival in ecosystems where replacement takes extraordinarily long.

Source

IUCN Red List

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