Greenland Shark

Greenland sharks push K-selection to its absolute extreme: 400+ year lifespans with sexual maturity not reached until age 150. This makes them the longest-lived vertebrates known, exceeding even bowhead whales. They achieve this through radical metabolic suppression—Greenland sharks move at 0.3 meters per second, making them one of the slowest fish for their size. Their tissues show minimal oxidative damage because their metabolism barely generates reactive oxygen species.

This represents K-selection taken beyond what blue whales achieve. Whales reach maturity in 5-10 years; Greenland sharks take 150 years. Whales actively hunt; Greenland sharks appear to scavenge and ambush sleeping prey. The strategy works in the stable, cold, resource-poor Arctic where metabolic suppression is advantageous and the environment changes slowly enough that 150-year generations can adapt.

The business parallel is family offices and sovereign wealth funds operating on multi-century timescales. These entities move slowly, avoid competition, preserve capital above all else, and measure success in generations rather than quarters. They can hold assets for 50 years without pressure to show returns. The Greenland shark strategy is the ultimate expression of patience capital. But it requires environmental stability—the same slow metabolism that enables 400-year lifespans makes rapid adaptation impossible. If Arctic ecosystems shift faster than Greenland sharks can evolve, their extreme longevity becomes a liability rather than an asset.