Fermented shark contains a large amount of ammonia and has a strong smell, similar to that of many cleaning products.

During this drying period, a brown crust will develop, which is removed prior to cutting the shark into small pieces and serving.

[5] The modern method is simply to press the shark's meat in a large plastic container, into which drain holes have been cut.

[6] Chef Anthony Bourdain described fermented shark as "the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing" he had ever eaten.

[2] Chef Gordon Ramsay challenged James May to sample three "delicacies" (Laotian snake whiskey, bull penis, and fermented shark) on The F Word.

[8] On a 2015 episode of Travel Man, Jessica Hynes and Richard Ayoade visited a Reykjavík restaurant and described the taste of hákarl as "awful", "like a jellied cube of ammonia", albeit "technically edible".

[9] On a season-5 final episode of Animal Planet's River Monsters, biologist and angler Jeremy Wade mentioned that the flesh "smells of urine" that has "a really strong aftertaste, it really kicks in.

As the Greenland shark is the longest-living vertebrate in the world, it takes an enormous amount of time for native populations to recover, currently being listed as vulnerable by the IUCN, primarily due to the effects of bycatch.

[14][15] Associations, such as the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization, an intergovernmental fishing science and management body, are calling for a ban of the hunting and killing of Greenland shark.