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
We Fell For The Oldest Lie On The Internet
Look at this fun fact: Did you know that YOUR blood vessels taken together add up to 100,000 kilometers, enough to wrap them around the planet twice? One of our favourite fun facts, used in our book and app and a video and… wait… 100,000 kilometers is lik…
Rob Riggle Ice Climbing in Iceland | Running Wild With Bear Grylls
BEAR GRYLLS: OK, Rob. Your front points– your crampons are your main weight-bearing things. Good lord. BEAR GRYLLS (VOICEOVER): Comedian Rob Riggle and I are in a race against time, searching to find a case of supplies before nightfall. But first, we’ve …
15 Best Books On Selling
You are watching the book club. Every Wednesday, we handpick the best books to improve your life. 15 of the best books on selling. Welcome to A Lux, the place where future billionaires come to get inspired. If you’re not subscribed yet, you’re missing out…
Human fertilization and early development | High school biology | Khan Academy
[Instructor] What we’re gonna do with this video is talk about fertilization and development in human beings, or at least early development in human beings. And this right over here is an actual image of fertilization about to happen or happening. So th…
Dealing cards with functions | Intro to CS - Python | Khan Academy
Let’s design a program with functions and nested function calls. We want to build a program that lets the user play several different car games. That means every game is going to need to share functionality for dealing a deck of playing cards. The first …
World's Strongest Magnet!
This is the world’s strongest magnet, capable of sucking objects in and generating electric current. Can you see that? And levitating non-magnetic objects. It even wreaks havoc on camera equipment. Wire is magnetic! So if it’s a CMOS sensor, the electro…