During the winter, the sharks live in deep water that is far beyond the depth range of other sharks, often going as deep as 400-600 meters (1300-2000 ft.). Its territory is along Greenland's coast and throughout the fjord systems, but they can range throughout the Arctic Ocean and as far south as the Gulf of St. Lawrence or the Gulf of Maine.

Reproduction

The Greenland shark is ovoviviparous and can have litters of up to 10 pups. The young are born at a size of 38 cm (15 in). It is unclear at what size males and females become mature. One female 285 cm long which was examined in Nova Scotia was immature.

This is one of the larger sharks. It is said to grow to a length of 24 feet, but 21 feet is the largest of which we find definite record,^[44] and 16- to 18-footers are unusual. One of 16½ feet was reported from the Grand Banks in 1934; one of 16 feet off Portland, Maine, in 1846; one of about 15 feet off Cape Ann in 1849; and another of about that same size was caught on a long line north of Cape Ann in February 1931. Perhaps 8 to 14 feet is a fair average for adults, that is not often exceeded among the hundreds caught annually off West Greenland and around Iceland. The 21 foot British specimen mentioned above was said to weigh about 2,250 pounds; two Gulf of Maine specimens, each about 11 feet long, weighed about 600 and 650 pounds, respectively.