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
Amelia Earhart Part II: The Lady’s Legacy | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic
I am Amelia Earhart. I am a famous pilot. More than 80 years after Amelia Earhart disappeared, she still occupies a place in our imaginations. As a girl and woman, people told me I would not be able to do things I wanted to do, like crying. For this eight…
Multiplication on the number line
What we’re going to do in this video is think about different ways to represent multiplication, and especially connect it to the notions of skip counting and the number line. So, if we were to think about what 4 times 2 means, we’ve already seen in other…
Testing a Shark Deterrent | Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth
I think it’s fair to say, however good we get at keeping humans and sharks apart in the ocean, there will always be moments when we meet. In those worst-case scenarios when sharks bite, is there anything that can be done? Charlie Houveneers is a scientis…
Divergence intuition, part 2
Hey everyone! So, in the last video, I was talking about Divergence and kind of laying down the intuition that we need for it. You’re imagining a vector field as representing some kind of fluid flow where particles move according to the vector that they’r…
Khan Academy Talent Search 2016
Hi, this is Sal Khan, founder of the KH Academy, and I just wanted to announce our second annual Talent Search. As you may know, KH Academy, we’re a non-profit with the mission of a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Part of that is creatin…
DON’T PAY with Cash or Debit!! This is better...
What’s up, you guys? It’s Graham here! So, we’ve all heard the saying that cash is king. Well, you know what? I think we’re slowly entering an era where cash no longer has quite the power and leverage it once used to have, and instead we’re seeing the sh…