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
Snowflake Science to Study Avalanches | Explorer
Snowflakes are one of mother nature’s most exquisite creations—fragile snow crystals that dazzle us in an array of shapes and sizes. But there’s a lot more to these intricate ice formations than meets the eye. Turns out that by looking a lot closer, snowf…
Subtracting 1 vs. subtracting 10 | Addition and subtraction within 100 | 2nd grade | Khan Academy
What I want you to do is pause the video and think about what 27 minus one is, and then think about what 27 minus 10 is. Alright, you might have found it pretty straightforward, but I want to think about it in terms of place value. So let’s focus on 27.…
Warren Buffett's Hidden Warning to Investors for 2024
This is Warren Buffett, the best investor the world has ever seen. This is the list of his top 10 stock holdings as of our last update on the 30th of June 2024. As we know, we get these updates every 3 months thanks to a very handy SEC filing called the 1…
"The Biggest Mistake I've Ever Made" | Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary & "The Mooch" Anthony Scaramucci
What do you tell them about building their own net worth and how to go forward and not trip up in that aspect? So many kids come out of college $80,000 in debt and they go straight downward from there. What advice do you give young kids in terms of start…
Designing a Cruise Ship | Making the Disney Wish | Mini Episode 3
The ship needs to be all about enchantment. We take you into a world where the design idea of Enchantment will bring our shift and the stories that we tell alive. We have over 1.2 million square feet of spaces. If you have chopped the ship up and you laid…
Axe Ghost Daily 2024-08-12
Hey, my name’s Thomas. I am playing Ax Ghost; this is a game I’m working on. You can find a demo of Ax Ghost on Steam. Uh, I’m playing the beta version, and I’ll be playing the daily challenge for today. I have the mirror and the centi Beed special weapon…