Great White Sharks are known to be one of the ocean’s top predators. However, much of their existence has never been captured on camera, until now. For the first time, a great white shark was captured on camera shortly after its birth. The image was taken on July 9, near Santa Barbara on California’s central coast. Filmmaker Carlos Gauna’s camera captured what looked like a great white shark pup, about 5ft long and pure white, an unusual color since sharks are white on the underside and grey on the top.
Ganua states, ” We enlarged the images, put them in slow motion, and realized the white layer was being shed from the body as it was swimming.” Sterne’s a biology doctoral student at the University of California said in a university statement. “I believe it was a newborn white shark shedding its embryonic layer.”
Reproduction
Furthermore, the reproductive habits of great white sharks are largely unknown to the scientific community. From what researchers have observed, this animal has a gestation period of more than a year, with mother sharks often carrying two to ten offspring’s at a time. The animals are also ovoviviparous, meaning that the egg contain embryos that hatch within their bodies but then emerge through vivisection once they are fully developed.
However, despite the rarity of the situation, Gauna suspected that the sharks in that specific area were giving birth, but when he took it up with scientists and conducted a study, he was told that white sharks only give birth in deeper seas. However, using his drone’s second-to-last battery, he and his companion Sterne, “observed a big, big shark go down” underwater around 1,000 feet from shore. After just a few minutes Gauna said a little white thing came up. It was smaller than the other sharks in the are, raising speculations that it was a newborn Great White shark.
Moreover, despite other scientist still not believing the reality of the situation, Gauna back up his statement by saying that the shark’s size and shape, along with the knowledge that pregnant shark had previously been spotted in the vicinity, indicated that it was a newborn. As previously mentioned, the shark was around 5ft which is typical for newborn Great Whites. Also, the fins of the shark where small and rounded.
A Big Mystery
In addition, it is still very unclear from the animal captured in the image if it is in fact a newborn white shark. The substance peeling off the shark could possible be an unknown skin disorder. Not an indication that the shark is a newborn. However, one thing is certain for sure, white sharks are a big mystery and it is not just Great White sharks. Gavin Naylor said, even whale sharks, the largest fish, can give birth to up to 300 pups at once, and scientists have no idea where they do it. Naylor is a shark researcher at the University of Florida.
Many things are unknown and they are beyond our understanding. The uncertainty and Unknown information like the one experience with this white shark is truly humbling. It reinforces the fact that scientist lack knowledge and that parts of the world are still unknown. However, a lack of scientific understanding about species make it difficult to execute appropriate conservation measures. It is difficult to safeguard sharks if the simple basic information of where their lives begin is still a mystery.
Written By Nohemi Sanchez
Sources:
CBS NEWS: These images may provide the world’s first look at a live newborn great white shark
The Guardian: Baby shark! Researchers may have captured first image of newborn great white
Vox: Is this a newborn great white shark? Big if true
Featured Image Courtesy of Bernard DUPONT Flickr Page – Creative Common License
Inset Image Courtesy of Bernard DUPONT Flickr Page – Creative Common License
