OCEARCH , a marine research non - profit group , recently posted a snapof a great white shark they were track with two elephantine pungency marks on its pass , make them to wonder what the blaze made those chump ?
The champ shark was a 3.8 - meter ( 12 foot 9 in ) adult male named " Vimy " lately study off the east coast of the US by OCEARCH . Despite his conflict scratch , he appear to be in unusually serious shape .
Judging by the size and shape of the raciness , they mistrust it was the outcome of a brawl with other large shark , although it ’s unclear whether it was adifferent speciesor a fellow male big white combat for a match . One of the wounds was relatively fresh , while the other was almost healed , propose the two injuries occurred on freestanding occasion .
" We do suspect that in this case the bite was inflicted by another , larger blank shark , " Chris Fischer , OCEARCH Founding Chairman and Expedition Leader , told IFLScience .
" A hebdomad before give chase Vimy , OCEARCH encounter a white shark we distrust was 17 - foot long [ 5.1 meters ] . So , we know there are sharks of the coast of Nova Scotia that are bigger than Vimy , " he explained .
OCEARCH make do to attach a tracker to Vimy , along with 10 other sharks , in arecent expeditionin the North Atlantic . The undertaking was also capable to capture some of the first - ever ultrasonography mental image of beating white shark hearts in the unwarranted and bore their resting core rate ( which , for the record , is around 10 musical rhythm per hour ) .
As you may see from the live map of his whereaboutshere , Vimy was first spotted earlier this month near Nova Scotia before heading towards the equator . By October 20 , Vimy was spotted late in the Atlantic almost 1,000 kilometers ( 621 Roman mile ) away southward from his first sighting .
Great white sharks(Carcharodon carcharias ) can be found in many waters across the globe , with notable concentrations in the US ( northeastern slide and California ) , South Africa , Japan , Chile , and the Meditteranean .
The metal money are smashing traveller , with individuals embark on extended migration every year . Numerous researchers have noted school of individuals independently migrating between Mexico and Hawaii . In other ocean basins , such as the Atlantic , individuals may migrate even longer distance . They are no stranger to the deep and glum depths of the ocean either , withone study documentinggreat lily-white at depths of 1,128 meters ( 3,700 feet ) .
Shark - on - shark conflict is not as rare as you might think , either .
" snowy sharks are big powerful predators and when they come in contact with each other , it is often a violent encounter , " Fischer added . " We ’ve encountered many that have had all kinds of wounds and scars . Some have had pieces missing from their fins , while others have had Gospel According to Mark around their gill surface area that are very indicative of mating encounters . What was unique about Vimy was both the manifest freshness of the wound and just how decipherable the top and bottom marks lined up to show the outline of the jaws from his opposite . "
in the beginning this year , a fisherman pull out thesevered head of a mako sharkfrom the waters of New South Wales , Australia . It ’s not totally clear what caused the decapitation , although biologists think over that multiple shark choose multiple little chunks out of the body until it fell aside , leaving just the chief attached to the angler ’s line .