![]() ![]() "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. Her size was absolutely incredible.Great white sharks need decades to reach adult size, and they continue to grow throughout their lifetimes. “After I spent some time with her, and then again when we confirmed her identity as Deep Blue, it was an incredible feeling of euphoria,” Mohler said. They received surface support in boats from Danny Roberts, Tim Andrews, and Heather Armstrong. On Sunday, Deep Blue was fattening up on sperm whale flesh as the carcass drifted slowly south, away from Oahu.ĭiving with Mohler were Andrew Gray, Kimberly Jeffries, Laura Rock, and Daren Babula. The gargantuan shark generated headlines again in 2015 when Mauricio Hoyas Padilla, a Mexico-based scientist, shared footage showing the shark dwarfing divers in cages at Guadalupe Island. RELATED: 15-year-old swimmer attacked by weird type of sharkĭeep Blue, believed to measure at least 21 feet, became famous after being featured by Discovery in 2014 (with footage captured in 2013). ![]() White shark sightings off Hawaii, however, are rare. Most return to Guadalupe by early or mid-summer. Those sharks typically migrate into open ocean, as far as Hawaii, during late fall or early winter. MCSI has tagged dozens of Guadalupe Island white sharks. Probst said he compared footage captured Sunday to photos in the Guadalupe Island database, and that the ID was confirmed by Michael Domeier and Nicole Nasby Lucas of the Marine Conservation Science Institute. Probst announced the Deep Blue sighting via Twitter on Tuesday, when another enormous white shark was spotted near the whale carcass.ĭeep Blue has unique skin markings. “She followed three tiger sharks in toward the whale carcass, and her sheer size made them look like barracudas.” “My first reaction was just disbelief,” Mark Mohler, who captured the images for this story, told For The Win Outdoors. The sighting of “Deep Blue” off Oahu was remarkable because the handful of previous sightings were documented 2,600 miles away at Guadalupe Island off Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. A strikingly massive great white shark, one of the largest ever documented, was spotted by divers in Hawaii on Sunday as the apex predator feasted on a sperm whale carcass. ![]()
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