Baby great white shark snapped for first time
THE first ever newborn great white shark has been captured on film, dispelling some of the myths surrounding the breeding habits of the creatures.
The ghostly white 5ft-long pup, which appeared to be swimming through a milky white film, was spotted by Carlos Gauna, a wildlife cinematographer, and Phillip Sternes, a biologist, off the shores of Santa Barbara.
Mr Sternes, of the University of California, said: “We enlarged the images, put them in slow motion and realised the white layer was being shed from the body as it was swimming. While in utero, the embryonic sharks might feed on unfertilised eggs for protein. The mothers offer additional nourishment to the growing shark pups with a ‘milk’ secreted in the uterus.
“I believe it was a newborn white shark shedding its embryonic layer.
“In my opinion, this one was likely hours, maybe one day old at most.”
Great whites are the largest predatory sharks in the world and can grow to almost 16ft. Experts previously believed they gave birth far out at sea but the new footage suggests they may move into shallower waters to reproduce.
Mr Gauna, who has spent thousands of hours filming sharks in the wild, said: “Where white sharks give birth is one of the Holy Grails of shark science.
“No one has ever been able to pinpoint where they are born, nor has anyone seen a newborn baby shark alive. There have been dead white sharks found inside deceased pregnant mothers. But nothing like this.” He said he had seen three “pregnant” sharks in the weeks leading up to the operation.
“I filmed three very large sharks that appeared pregnant at this specific location in the days prior,” he added.
“On this day, one of them dove down and not long afterwards, this fully white shark appears. It’s not a stretch to deduce where the baby came from.”
The pup was filmed about 300 yards from the beach, suggesting that the shallow waters of the Californian coast may be a regular birthing location for great whites.
“This may well be the first evidence we have of a pup in the wild, making this a definitive birthing location,” added Mr Sternes. “There are a lot of hypothetical areas but despite intense interest in these sharks, no one’s seen a birth or a newborn pup in the wild.”
He said the waters should be protected by law if it is confirmed they are a breeding ground for the sharks.
Great whites are coloured grey on top and white on the bottom but the new images suggest their pups may start out as pure white.
The findings were published in the journal Environmental Biology of Fishes.