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
Moving Illusions
Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. This is a completely still image, but as your eye reads what I’m saying and jumps from word to word, the paragraph will appear to slightly, just subtly, wave and boil. The allusion is called anomalous motion. It’s neat. But to …
Who Will Win The Election?
Look, if Trump wins, we got to go long energy because the PS are the lowest of the all 11 sectors of the economy. It has been crushed by regulation, and I think it’ll be deregulated because of his idea of using lower energy prices to get inflation down. T…
The Real Amazons | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic
So hello, my name is Amy Briggs Manyaza Vootsami Briggs. [Music] I’m dusting off my very rusty college Russian because this story starts in Siberia back in 1988, when archaeologists hit the jackpot. They were looking for kurgans, burial mounds of an ancie…
What does it take to broker corporate jet deals?
One thing, when we’re selling an airplane, people always need to know what’s the history of the airplane. How do we know that the maintenance is correct, the pedigree is correct, how it’s been maintained, or where it’s lived—location, or in a hangar? We …
Worked example of linear regression using transformed data | AP Statistics | Khan Academy
We are told that a conservation group with a long-term goal of preserving species believes that all at-risk species will disappear when land inhabited by those species is developed. It has an opportunity to purchase land in an area about to be developed. …
How The Democrats Lost Small Business Support
What I think the Democrats missed was when you look at job creation in America, 62% are created by businesses—small businesses, 5 to 500 employees. These are first and second generation family businesses. They are the backbone of the American economy. The…