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
Top 3 Online Businesses to Start in 2025 (Even if You’re Broke)
I’ve been in this online business world for 5 years and businesses I’ve made generated well over 500k US in profit. I’ve tried everything from service based work to digital products to content creation with this channel of 1.4 million subscribers and I ge…
The future tense | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy
Hello, grammar pals, and welcome to the future full of jetpacks and spaceships and shiny jumpsuits. Uh, and also the word “will.” There’s a lot of “will” in the future. Uh, by which I mean that we use this word “will” to form the future tense in English.…
Elon Musk & The Midwit Meme – Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel
This is the the beauty of the midwife meme: the genius and the idiot come to the same conclusion. So what is the idiot approach? Like, that’s actually how you can divine the genius approach. You’re like, “What would an idiot do?” Everyone can reach for th…
This Yacht Makes $150,000 Per Week (Here's How)
What’s up guys, it’s Graham here! So this has been the most luxurious week of my entire life, and if you’re curious what a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a week gets you in Croatia, wait no longer! “Graham, welcome onboard Ohana.” “Thank you, I’m ha…
15 Things You Should Learn from the Greatest Empires’ Mistakes
These Empires conquered, and these Empires fell. Just like we learned from their success stories, yesterday we can learn from their failures today. Every move they made can be scaled down from a rule that reached hundreds of thousands of people across the…
Overview of ancient Persia | World History | Khan Academy
We’re going to do in this video is have an overview of one of the greatest empires and really civilizations of not only the ancient world but of the world. And that is Persia. We see a map here; this is the extent of the Persian Empire at around 500 BCE u…