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
Velocity, acceleration and distance traveled for points on wave
We are told a transverse wave travels to the right along a string. They draw it right over here. Two dots have been painted on the string in the diagrams below. Those dots are labeled P and Q, so that’s these dots here. The figure below shows a string at …
Did The Past Really Happen?
Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. The dog that played Toto in The Wizard of Oz was credited as Toto, but in reality, the dog’s name was Terry. And when Terry died in 1945, her owner and trainer, Carl Spitz, buried her on his ranch in Los Angeles. But in 1958, th…
What if there was a black hole in your pocket?
What would happen to you if a black hole the size of a coin suddenly appeared near you? Short answer: you’d die. Long answer: it depends. Is it a black hole with the mass of a coin, or is it as wide as a coin? Suppose a US nickel with the mass of about …
Exposed: RoofStock’s TurnKey Real Estate Investing
What’s up you guys, it’s Graham here. Now, because I’m a real estate agent and real estate investor, I pretty much think it’s like my job to understand all of the real estate investing platforms out there. Now, for those who haven’t seen it, I previously …
Being Ethical Is Long-term Greedy
In one of your tweets, you listed out some of the things you should study, like programming, sales, reading, writing, and arithmetic. One of the items that ended up on the cutting room floor was that you should also study ethics. I was originally going to…
First and second laws of thermodynamics | Khan Academy
If you take a very hot coffee, say in a thermoflask, and keep it in a room, then you know that that coffee will automatically start cooling down all by itself until it reaches its room temperature. Right? But my question is why can’t the RSE happen? Why c…