![]() ![]() The great white, listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, has many threats including sport fishing and accidental killing as bycatch. While great whites are the most famous shark species, there’s a lot we don’t know-in part because they’re tricky to study, thanks to their elusive nature and wide-ranging migrations, covering thousands of miles per year.īy cataloging such encounters, scientists hope to gain a better understanding of where the creatures spend their time, which helps create more effective conservation measures. ![]() “Maybe we just don’t know they’re there and this just provided a rare opportunity to see them.” “Are there more females hanging around the Hawaiian Islands than we know about?” wonders Christopher Lowe, director of the shark lab at California State University in Long Beach. And while great white sharks have likely visited Hawaii for centuries, scientists think there probably isn’t a resident population. Female white sharks seem to be mostly solitary creatures. The sighting is also unusual for both the number and sex of animals spotted. ET on National Geographic Channel, as part of SharkFest. Watch World’s Biggest Great White?, which airs July 21 at 8 p.m. And that meant astonishing underwater views, including photos and video, of Deep Blue and the other great whites feeding, offering a rare glimpse into the lives of these top predators. “It was one of those rare weeks where there’s no wind there’s no swells,” Jeffries says. (Most female great whites average around 15 to 16 feet.) Over three days, Jeffries and her colleagues documented the extraordinary spectacle-while maintaining a respectful distance-as two more mature female white sharks came to chow down on the sperm whale carcass. Stretching some 20 feet from tip to tail, it was the famous Deep Blue, one of the largest great white sharks ever caught on film. Mere moments after she jumped in, something tens of feet below caught her eye: a massive great white shark wending her way up from the deep. It was January 2019, and Jeffries, a Hawaii-based nature and wildlife photographer, had arrived at this spot a couple of miles southwest of Waikiki hoping to catch a glimpse of predators drawn to the floating cetacean feast. Kimberly Jeffries spotted the dead sperm whale from nearly half a mile away-a white mass the size of a bus bobbing in the calm early-morning waters. ![]()
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