Great white sharks are... big.
Obviously.
But a few years ago, divers met up with Deep Blue, probably the biggest great white shark
ever caught on camera.
So what do we know about the massive great white?
Of course, it's impossible to hear the words "great white" without also hearing the Jaws
theme ... or that song "Once Bitten Twice Shy" by Eighties hair metal band, Great White.
Definitely one of the two, no?
"Alex?”
Here, we're talking about the razor-toothed sea beast whose dorsal fin spells certain
doom in Steven Spielberg movies: The great white shark.
According to National Geographic, great whites are the world's biggest predatory fish, equipped
with up to three-hundred flesh-rending teeth and a super-strong sense of smell.
You could call these creatures the lions of the sea, but they eat sea lions for breakfast.
Even though they account for one-third to one-half of the more than 100 shark attacks
that happen each year, great whites usually only bite people out of curiosity rather than
bloodlust.
Isn't that reassuring?
"We're gonna find a way to get out of here.
First, we're gonna seal off this — "
Well, at least in reality, very few white shark attacks are fatal.
Now this here is just your average great white shark.
They tend to be about fifteen feet long.
But what we're here to talk about today is the greatest great white shark ever caught
on film.
And here she comes.
People call her "Deep Blue," as she was first introduced to the public through Discovery
Channel's Shark Week marathon.The largest ever caught on film is about twenty feet long
and weighs an estimated five-thousand pounds.
Despite her gigantic size, the sharp teeth in her mouth, and those freakishly beady eyes,
Deep Blue isn't a nightmare.
In fact, most great whites aren't.
Deep Blue is about fifty-years old.
When she was first discovered near the Mexican island of Guadalupe in 2013, one diver felt
so comfortable that he reached out and touched her.
That someone was shark-ologist Mauricio Hoyos Padilla, who gave Deep Blue her nickname.
In a video clip of their encounter first released in 2015, a fearless Padilla basically high-fived
one of Deep Blue's fins.
Because who needs both their hands?
Even if you're okay with the prospect of underwater amputation, high-fiving a great white is a
terrible idea because it can also endanger the shark.
When a group of divers touched a different great white from inside a cage in 2016, one
biologist called it, quote, "one of the dumbest and most dangerous shark interactions I have
ever seen."
That's because in addition to endangering the divers, it could have prompted the shark
to ram the cage and injure itself.
In fairness to Padilla, he might have just been overcome with excitement.
It's not every day you get to see a female great white up close.
As one shark expert explained to NBC:
"Females are kind of elusive.
We haven't really figured out where they go or how they spend their time."
However, Padilla had some idea what Deep Blue was getting up to.
He suspected the gargantuan fish was pregnant.
So maybe the high-five was his way of saying congrats?
But maybe she's not quite as large as people say.
Shark expert George Burgess, who directs the Florida Natural History Museum's International
Shark Attack File, estimated that Deep Blue is closer to 18 or 19 feet long.
That might seem nitpicky when you're discussing an animal that can bite off your feet altogether,
but it makes a huge difference when measuring the largest animal of its kind.
Deep Blue should settle things by agreeing to be tape-measured, no?
No.
NOOOOOOO….!!!!
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