You’ll need a bigger ship — Finally.
Two men filming drone footage off California’s central coast may have accidentally captured the first sighting of a newborn great white shark.
Wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna and University of California, Riverside biological biologist Philip Stearns were filming coastal waters near Santa Barbara on July 9, 2023, when the pair spotted Gauna’s drone camera. I made a surprising discovery with my finder. A baby shark about a foot long.
According to the University of California, Riverside, although scientists refer to great white sharks simply as white sharks, they are actually two-tone with gray upperparts and white underbelly.
Noticing the fish’s unusually chalky complexion and what appeared to be hints of gray skin beneath the seemingly rubbery white substance, the pair knew they needed to investigate further.
“When we zoomed in on the image and put it in slow motion, we could see that the white layer was peeling off from its body as it swam,” Stearns said. “I believe it was a great white shark that had just shed its embryonic layer.”
Their footage and observations were published in a new paper in the journal Environment Biology of Fishes. Their discovery may finally provide the scientific community with some clues about the elusive birthplace of great white sharks, which have long been shrouded in mystery.
“Where great white sharks give birth is one of the holy grails of shark science. No one has been able to pinpoint exactly where they are born, and no one has ever seen a newborn baby shark alive. ” Gauna said. “The carcass of a great white shark was once found inside a deceased pregnant woman. But nothing like this has ever happened.”
Toby Curtis, a fisheries management specialist with NOAA Fisheries’ Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Management division, acknowledged the rarity of the discovery in an email to the Post.
“Observations of free-swimming newborn great white sharks are extremely rare and new video and photographic evidence could be invaluable,” he said.
“As the use of drones becomes more widely available to the public, we have the potential to document more unique and unusual wildlife behaviors, such as where many shark species mate and give birth. Observations like this It will help us better protect these species and their critical habitat.”
according to Science.orgThe study’s co-authors believe that the milky substance may have been just that: the remains of the uterine milk produced by pregnant great white sharks to nourish their young during pregnancy.
Stearns and Gauna both acknowledge that the white substance may have been simply a skin disease, but they also consider remote possibilities.
“If that’s what we saw, this is also monumental because no such condition has ever been reported for these sharks,” Gauna said.
Great white sharks have fascinated and terrified humans for centuries. Their aggressive nature and large mouths filled with approximately 300 razor-sharp teeth make them perfect nightmare fuel.
Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws cemented the great white shark’s place in popular culture and inspired the paranoia of many beachgoers about what lurks in the ocean’s depths.
In fact, great white shark attacks are extremely rare, with an average of only 70 attacks per year. According to Field & Stream, a person is seven times more likely to be struck by lightning than a great white shark.
According to , the largest great white sharks can reach lengths of 21 feet and most weigh between 1,500 and 4,000 pounds. Britannica.
