What ate this 9 foot great white?

Do y'all think it could have been hoaxed? Say some fishermen caught it and lifted it out of the water raising the temperature, then throwing the tracker back in?

Without seeing the body, I don't see how they can conclusively say the shark was eaten. Do they put the trackers on the dorsal fin? Maybe another animal bit the dorsal fin off along with the tracker.

I'm just spit-balling lol

jthomas666 said:

Can you think of a more likely explanation for the temperature spike?

Click to expand...

Rattlehead's explanation sounds plausible.

Rattlehead82 said:

Do y'all think it could have been hoaxed? Say some fishermen caught it and lifted it out of the water raising the temperature, then throwing the tracker back in?

Without seeing the body, I don't see how they can conclusively say the shark was eaten. Do they put the trackers on the dorsal fin? Maybe another animal bit the dorsal fin off along with the tracker.

I'm just spit-balling lol

Click to expand...

when sharks make sweet love the male does bite the dorsal fin to hold on.

Phip Fulmer

My first thought was NYBF.

This thread is full of possibilities...

Tidewater said:

My first thought was NYBF.

Click to expand...

His family crest is a picture of a Barracuda eating Neil Armstrong

Rattlehead82 said:

...Do they put the trackers on the dorsal fin?

Click to expand...

I think the "anchor" part of the tracker is usually attached into the back near the base of the dorsal fin.

DzynKingRTR said:

when sharks make sweet love the male does bite the dorsal fin to hold on.

Click to expand...

Lol....no they don't, they are sharks not dogs. Both sets of tools are on the bottom of the shark. They can't mount each other.

DzynKingRTR said:

my first guess would be a bigger great white, my second guess is killer whale, my third is the tracker malfunctioned and fell out.

Click to expand...

This was my first guess, as it is known to happen (see here for a documentary on the subject). Orcas > Great Whites. But Orcas have a core body temp of 97.5 or so, so one would expect the recorded temp spike to have been even higher than it was.

3m is not particularly big for a female great white (mature individuals reach up to 6.4m with average mature female being 4.5-5m). So this was an adolescent. Not unbelievable that a large mature alpha took a bite out of her.

swoop10 said:

Lol....no they don't, they are sharks not dogs. Both sets of tools are on the bottom of the shark. They can't mount each other.

Click to expand...

I was mistaken the male does bite the females gills though not the dorsal. you made me look it up.

PacadermaTideUs said:

This was my first guess, as it is known to happen (see here for a documentary on the subject). Orcas > Great Whites. But Orcas have a core body temp of 97.5 or so, so one would expect the recorded temp spike to have been even higher than it was.

3m is not particularly big for a female great white (mature individuals reach up to 6.4m with average mature female being 4.5-5m). So this was an adolescent. Not unbelievable that a large mature alpha took a bite out of her.

Click to expand...

yeah I am starting to lean towards the killer whale theory. Great Whites and Killer Whales are like the Crips and Bloods when it comes to getting along.

Do Orcas dive that deeply? I thought sperm whales were they only deep diving mammals.

Rattlehead82 said:

Do y'all think it could have been hoaxed? Say some fishermen caught it and lifted it out of the water raising the temperature, then throwing the tracker back in?

Without seeing the body, I don't see how they can conclusively say the shark was eaten. Do they put the trackers on the dorsal fin? Maybe another animal bit the dorsal fin off along with the tracker.

I'm just spit-balling lol

Click to expand...

DzynKingRTR said:

Rattlehead's explanation sounds plausible.

Click to expand...

The spike occured at 1,900 feet beneath the surface of the ocean, not something a fisherman could have done. The reason 78 degrees is such a conclusive temperature for being eaten is because that's very close to the interior temperature for a lot of marine animals. Our heat signature is 98.6, in that same way, 78 is very common for marine animals.

The temperature in the water around the shark was 46 degrees prior to the spike, and it stayed at 78 degrees for 8 days, which falls in line with traveling through a digestive system.

That heat signature is too low for an Orca. The only thing that really makes sense at this point would be another Great White Shark.

RedStar said:

The spike occured at 1,900 feet beneath the surface of the ocean, not something a fisherman could have done. The reason 78 degrees is such a conclusive temperature for being eaten is because that's very close to the interior temperature for a lot of marine animals. Our heat signature is 98.6, in that same way, 78 is very common for marine animals.

The temperature in the water around the shark was 46 degrees prior to the spike, and it stayed at 78 degrees for 8 days, which falls in line with traveling through a digestive system.

That heat signature is too low for an Orca. The only thing that really makes sense at this point would be another Great White Shark.

Click to expand...

Agreed. The stomach temp of a White ranges from 13-25 degrees higher than the surrounding water temp (see link), which would put it in the 59-71 range. We don't have intestinal values for the White Shark. But we do for its cousins, the Maco, the Porbeagle, and the Salmon. In those cases, the intestinal temps range about 3-7 degrees warmer than the stomach. Extrapolating those increases to the White, we arrive at an intestinal temperature around 62-78 degrees. Maybe a tad low compared to the 78 that was measured, but definitely within the realm of possibility.

RedStar said:

The temperature in the water around the shark was 46 degrees prior to the spike, and it stayed at 78 degrees for 8 days, which falls in line with traveling through a digestive system.

Click to expand...

I now know more about Great White Shark digestion than I probably needed to.

PacadermaTideUs said:

Agreed. The stomach temp of a White ranges from 13-25 degrees higher than the surrounding water temp (see link), which would put it in the 59-71 range. We don't have intestinal values for the White Shark. But we do for its cousins, the Maco, the Porbeagle, and the Salmon. In those cases, the intestinal temps range about 3-7 degrees warmer than the stomach. Extrapolating those increases to the White, we arrive at an intestinal temperature around 62-78 degrees. Maybe a tad low compared to the 78 that was measured, but definitely within the realm of possibility.

Click to expand...

And it looks like there wasn't much mystery, they already knew but were trying to get people to tune in and watch. It was another Great White.

Megalodon