yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Great White Sharks of Guadalupe Island | Most Wanted Sharks


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

NARRATOR: But everyone loves Lucy. The story of this great white is the classic "Finding Nemo" tale, but about 2,000 pounds heavier. When divers spotted Lucy back in 2008, her distinctive tail wound looked fresh. And she seemed in desperate need of a good meal. A damaged caudal often puts a shark's life in danger. It's crucial for propelling a shark through water.

APRYL BOYLE: Lucy's tail deformity could be from fighting with another shark when she was younger.

NARRATOR: And Lucy's not only survived, she's thrived. She did it by modifying the way she swims to sway a little more than the average great white. And now Lucy's adoring public keeps an eye out for her signature floppy fin and her unique swagger. Unlike other female great whites, Lucy returns to Guadalupe Island every year. And that is because she has not given birth yet. If she did, she'd be gone at least 12 to 18 months, because that's how long a shark pregnancy lasts.

NARRATOR: Fans don't know for sure why Lucy is still not a mom. It could be that male sharks are turned off by her misshapen fin. Or maybe Lucy hasn't yet met Zapata, the most famous and recognizable male great white of Guadalupe Island. This tough guy is a 14-footer, who has mixed it up with other apex predators and has the battle scars to prove it.

RALPH COLLIER: Zapata is a very large shark. To sustain the wounds it received, the attacking shark must have been very large, possibly 18 or 20 feet in length.

NARRATOR: He might not play well with other sharks. But luckily, unlike Bullet, Zapata actually enjoys hanging out with people. That's my favorite shark right there, Zapata.

NARRATOR: Scarboard, at an intimidating 18 feet long, isn't just one of the most massive sharks at Guadalupe Island, she's one of the biggest great whites in the world. But like all sharks, no one will know for sure how old she is until after she dies.

RALPH COLLIER: One of the ways to determine the age of a shark is by dissecting it. If we cut through a vertebra, we can see rings similar to those of a tree showing annual growth. She got her nautically themed name because of scars on the right, or starboard, side of her body.

APRYL BOYLE: When sharks engage in head-to-head combat, they can do incredible damage to each other, which is what happened to Scarboard. But sharks have amazing healing abilities.

NARRATOR: Scarboard shows up at Guadalupe every other year. And the next time you see her, many of her scars might be gone. Bullet, Lucy, Zapata, and Scarboard, four sharks whose physical flaws grabbed our attention and helped make them famous.

More Articles

View All
My minimalist productivity setup
[Music] Welcome to where the magic happens. You’ve seen this place before, mostly in the background of these a-roll shots and in b-roll shots where I’m either wasting time or being productive—the only two types of b-roll shots on this entire channel. But …
Ancient Egypt | Early Civilizations | World History | Khan Academy
[Narrator] In this video, we are going to give ourselves an overview of ancient Egypt, which corresponds geographically pretty closely to the modern day state of Egypt in northeast Africa. Now, the central feature in both ancient Egypt and in modern Egypt…
London is the centre of the world
The world changed a lot. It’s like a moving chessboard. London was the gateway, not only to Europe but really to the financial world outside of New York. New York now, from my perspective, has sort of gone away from being that financial hub. But at the en…
Messages For The Future
Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. This is Earth as seen from Saturn. That is us right there. And if you look closely, okay, see this little protuberance? That’s the Moon. This image was taken by the Cassini spacecraft on July 19th, 2013, at 21:27 Coordinated Uni…
A Nuclear-Powered Space Mission | Mission Saturn
NARRATOR: Way out into space, the sun’s energy-giving rays grow weaker. Solar panels would be little use to Cassini passing distant planets. It needs a far longer lasting source of power: the radioactive power of plutonium-238. In Idaho Falls, behind high…
Ecology introduction | Ecology | Khan Academy
We’re now going to start looking at ecology, which is just a study of how life interacts with other life or how living things interact with each other and their environment. So you could think of it as, well, how is life interacting with living things? S…