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
A 750-Year-Old Secret: See How Soy Sauce Is Still Made Today | Short Film Showcase
In a small coastal town in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, the traditional streets and buildings hold one of the best-kept secrets of Japanese Gastronomy. For it was here, in the 13th century, that soy sauce, as we know it, was first established and produced.…
My Response To Michael Reeves | The Full Story
I don’t have credit. Don’t have a credit card. I don’t actually know what rent is here. [Music] [Applause] So today I want to introduce you to Michael Reeves. He’s a millennial college dropout turned computer programmer turned robotic mad scientist tur…
Thanks to Shrimp, These Waters Stay Fresh and Clean | Short Film Showcase
[Music] The first time I saw it, I couldn’t believe it. I mean, it was like the Fawn; it was completely different than anything I’d seen before. When you get eight or ten species all in a small pool still coexisting, and they’re all shrimp or crabs, it’s …
Comparing rates example
We’re told that a conservationist has the hypothesis that when squirrels are more crowded together, they have higher rates of aggression. The table below shows the area of three parks and the number of squirrels in each; that’s given right over here. Orde…
The Bill of Rights: an introduction | US government and civics | Khan Academy
The Bill of Rights, as we know it today, were the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. These amendments guaranteed individual liberty to make sure that citizens had a stated expectation for what the government could or could not do to them. You can ki…
Derivative as slope of curve | Derivatives introduction | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy
What I want to do in this video is a few examples that test our intuition of the derivative as a rate of change or the steepness of a curve, or the slope of a curve, or the slope of a tangent line of a curve, depending on how you actually want to think ab…