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
How to Implement AI in Your Classroom
Okay, big welcome to everyone who’s joining! I know it takes a little while to get every possible Zoo member line signed up, but I have to tell you all I am so thrilled to be here today with you with a rock star panel of teachers. We have so many great Ed…
What is a sentence? | Syntax | Khan Academy
Hello Garans, hello Paige, hi David. So today we’re going to tackle this idea of what is a sentence as we go into this realm of language that is called syntax. Syntax is this concept of basically grammatical order. This word “syntaxis” literally means in…
Example finding distance with Pythagorean theorem
We are asked what is the distance between the following points, so pause this video and see if you can figure it out. Well, there are multiple ways to think about it. The way I think about it is really to try to draw a right triangle where these points, w…
Earth Is Running Out of Space
7.7 billion. That’s the estimated number of people in the world today. To put it in perspective, that’s 110,000 NFL stadiums filled to capacity. If each of us were to hold hands, we would surround the entire circumference of the earth 345 times. The conce…
Introduction to contractions | The Apostrophe | Punctuation | Khan Academy
Hello grammarians! Hello David! Hello Paige! So today we’re going to talk about contractions, which are another use for our friend the apostrophe. So David, what is a contraction? So something that apostrophes are really good at doing is showing when le…
Don’t Buy The Dip | The Stock Market Is Broken
What’s up guys, it’s Graham here. So today, let’s try to answer one of the most puzzling questions of the market that some people spend their entire lives trying to decipher, and that would be: why did the market just go up? Is this the feared dead cat bo…