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
What Will We Miss?
Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. And the year 6009 will be the very first year since 1961 that a year, when written in Hindu-Arabic numerals, can be inverted and still look the same. But you and I probably won’t live long enough to enjoy the year six thousand a…
Why I Owe The IRS $1.5 Million Dollars
What’s up here, guys? It’s Upgram, and I gotta say, I was actually pretty blown away by how many people enjoyed my Joe Biden tax plan video and wanted to hear more. No joke, when I made the video, I was worried that no one would want to hear about the top…
Long term economic profit for monopolistic competition | Microeconomics | Khan Academy
We have already thought about the demand curves for perfect competition and monopolies and the types of economic profit that might result in. In this video, we’re going to focus on something in between, which we’ve talked about in previous videos, which i…
Warren Buffett's Warning about Airline and Cruise Line Stocks
Hey guys, welcome back to the channel! In this video, I’m going to be talking about a massive trap that, in all honesty, a lot of investors have been walking into in the past, say, three months or so. And it’s really sad to see because most people just do…
Zambia’s National Handball Team Dreams of Olympic Gold in 2020 | Short Film Showcase
[Applause] Yeah, a maternity. We should let not a dream die as a dream. So we want to play at the Olympics. The boys want to play at the Olympics. A Masada mundo. I play left wing on the Zambian actual number on bottom. Yes, I’ll be turning 20 on 18th Oc…
Sharing Nkashi: Race for the Okavango with people of the Okavango Delta | National Geographic
Around the Okavango Delta, it isn’t just wildlife that relies on the waterways. The Delta is what we base our livelihood on. My relationship with mokoro goes way back to when I was a child. I was raised on it; I fish on it. It’s what I use to raise and pr…