![]() The stench was so thick, it coated the nostrils and tongue in something that had a more smokey and unique flavor. The rotting blubber caused a slick that shimmered in the low sun and stuck to boat hulls and swimmers alike. Giant vertebrae stuck out from what I assume was once the posterior end of the thing. By the time we found it, the sun had burned the skin off and the fins had all been gnawed away by scavengers. At one point, it had been a sperm whale, and a big one at that. We found the bloated carcass about eight miles outside of the harbor. I was plucked from Honolulu Airport at 7am and shuttled straight to a waiting boat. Within a half-hour, I had a reservation on the first flight in the morning and a call-out-of-work-sick email drafted and ready to hit send. One friend used three adjectives to describe it: “It was big, it was white, and it was pointy.” Then he sent a photo. Chewing on this carcass was a shark that they claimed couldn’t be identified. In our circles, that alone would be gross and exciting news. They had found a dead whale floating offshore. Some good friends from a neighboring Hawaiian island called me one day to be mysterious about gloating. ![]() I would like to relay such a connection I had a few years ago.Ī whale carcass attracts large sharks, but nobody was expecting to see Haole Girl, a giant lady around 20 feet long! Every once in a while, we are reminded that our life experience isn’t entirely unlike that of the animals with whom we share the planet. We aren’t the only animals that have the ability to gather intelligence: animals like cetaceans and cephalopods are also famously brainy. Observation and extrapolation is at the heart of science, problem solving, engineering, and even government intelligence. As a species, we value our ability to observe and then apply what we learn to new situations. It is easy to forget that we are animals, and we share a planet with others, each trying to eke out a living using whatever advantages we have. Make better choices than the author of this story. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Īrticle originally appeared on LiveScience.Face to face with one of the largest great white sharks ever captured on cameraĭisclaimer: If you find yourself next to a whale carcass with a giant, actively feeding great white shark, 10 out of 10 trauma surgeons and a small army of shark biologists recommend staying out of the water. On the Brink: A Gallery of Wild Sharks Images: Weird Deep-Sea Sharks The 10 Wildest Pregnancies in the Animal Kingdom Copyright 2015 LiveScience, a Purch company. "Sharks that live in deep, cold water could be much older - well over 100," Naylor said. ![]() Technologies like satellite tracking are revealing more about great whites and their lifestyles, and scientists may yet discover that 50-something giants like Deep Blue are not so rare after all. Great whites are especially difficult to raise and study in captivity, and as with any big marine animal, observing their habits in the ocean depths is challenging and often dangerous, Naylor added. "There's a lot we still don't know," said Gavin Naylor, a biology professor at the College of Charleston. Glimpses of exceptionally large great whites like Deep Blue can help to shed light on the many unknowns of these elusive creatures. "The more big females like Deep Blue that we have in the population, the better off the white shark population will be," Curtis told Live Science. And bigger sharks are more likely to produce big litters, making larger females important from a conservation standpoint. The number of young a shark births can vary, but litters with as many as 10 pups have been documented, said Tobey Curtis of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Shark Files: Largest Shark Ever Filmed Caught On Video Skomal's study hints that there may be much older sharks than Deep Blue out there, and they could be even bigger.Īfter reaching maturity, white sharks' growth slows - but it doesn't stop. Padilla estimated that Deep Blue was about 50 years old, based on her size. That study also showed that great whites could live to be at least 73. ![]() In fact, Gregory Skomal, a fisheries biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and his colleagues found great whites grow even more slowly than scientists had thought: The biologists' research, published in January in the journal Marine and Freshwater Research, suggested males take 26 years to reach sexual maturity, whereas females aren't ready to have babies until they're about 33 years old - much later than once thought. So, a much-bigger-than-average shark, like Deep Blue, is likely an older shark. Great white sharks need decades to reach adult size, and they continue to grow throughout their lifetimes.
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