Jaws was a classic and very scary movie, but it’s hard to imagine just how huge a great white shark is until you actually see one close up. Deep Blue, an at least 20-foot female great white shark living off the Pacific coast of Mexico, is one of the largest sharks ever filmed. Recent video footage shows the giant shark “high-fiving” a diver in a cage with a fin near Guadalupe Island, Mexico.
Amazing new shark video
An amazing video posted on Facebook Tuesday of this week shows Mexican biologist Mauricio Hoyos Padilla leaving his no-top shark cage to “high-five” the fin of a great white shark, one of the largest sharks ever filmed. Easily over 20 feet long, and thought to be more than 50 years old, the shark dwarfs the diver who was able to touch the creature and withdraw his hand.
It turns out the footage was actually taken on an earlier trip, and Padilla just reviewed the files in his computer a few days ago to discover the amazing footage. Since the video was posted on Tuesday, it has gone viral and has been viewed by well over three million people and has been shared more than 42,000 times.
Deep Blue more than 50 years old
The giant shark, dubbed Deep Blue by researchers, was first featured back in the summer of last year by the Discovery Channel in a documentary that focused on the tagging of the titanic creature. The shark was obviously pregnant at the time of the documentary filming, with a bulging abdomen. Now a much slimmed down Deep Blue has showed up again at Guadalupe Island, but she seemed rather oblivious to the Padilla’s presence as she slowly circled the cage.
The researchers point out that the massive shark is also recognizable by her numerous scars.
In the Discovery documentary, it is explained that that large, vertical slashes on Deep Blue’s left flank are likely from fights with other sharks or rough mating go figure!). Deep Blue also has also has a notable, gaping wound on her right side, and both her dorsal fin and tail show signs of scrapes and damage.
After the marine biologists tagged Deep Blue, they followed her to an elephant seal colony a couple of miles away. Not surprisingly, adult great white sharks are known to prey on elephant seals.
More on great white sharks
Great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) are known as the largest predatory fish in the oceans. Wildlife biologists say that great whites usually grow to close to 15 feet in length, with a few specimens reaching more than 20 feet long and topping out at around 5,000 pounds.Females typically give birth to 2-14 fully formed pups.
The classic film Jaws gave great whites a bad reputation, portraying them as nothing more than meat-eating machines. However, additional research into great white behaviors is beginning to paint a more complex picture. There is strong evidence that great whites do socialize to a limited extent, and moreover, they are not always violent or aggressive, they can also be passive or even evince curiosity.
