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
Recognizing fragments | Syntax | Khan Academy
Hello grammarians! David here along with my cousin Beth, who also happens to be a teacher. Say hello to the people, Beth. “Hi, people!” So today we are going to talk about sentence fragments. Beth, you cover these in classes that you teach. Could you te…
Homeroom with Sal & Tom Inglesby, MD - Tuesday, September 8
Welcome to the Homeroom livestream. We have a very exciting conversation planned, but before we dive into that, I’ll give you my standard announcements. First of all, just a reminder that Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization, and we wouldn’t exis…
Graphing logarithmic functions (example 1) | Algebra 2 | Khan Academy
We’re told the graph of y is equal to log base 2 of x is shown below, and I say graph y is equal to 2 log base 2 of negative x minus 3. So pause this video and have a go at it. The way to think about it is that this second equation that we want to graph i…
Supplemental insurance | Insurance | Financial literacy | Khan Academy
So let’s talk a little bit about supplemental insurance. Now, it is what the words describe it as; it is a supplement to usually some other existing insurance. It’s insurance above and beyond things that you might already have. So there’s a lot of exampl…
How to change your life in a year
As I spend some time at home with my family this Christmas season, I’m reminded yet again how quickly time flies. It’s the end of the year again. Not really sure how that happened, but naturally, it gets me thinking about the year I just had and whether o…
Solving equations by graphing: graphing calculator | Algebra 2 | Khan Academy
We are told we want to solve the following equation: that the negative natural log of 2x is equal to 2 times the absolute value of x minus 4, all of that minus 7. One of the solutions is x is equal to 0.5. Find the other solution. They say hint: use a gra…