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?
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00:00Great white sharks are… big, obviously.
00:04But a few years ago, divers met up with Deep Blue, probably the biggest great white shark
00:09ever caught on camera.
00:11So what do we know about the massive great white?
00:13Of course, it's impossible to hear the words great white without also hearing the Jaws
00:17theme or that song once bitten twice shy by 80s hair metal band Great White.
00:22Definitely one of the two, no?
00:25"...Alice?"
00:31Here we're talking about the razor-toothed sea beast whose dorsal fin spells certain
00:35doom in Steven Spielberg movies, the great white shark.
00:39According to National Geographic, great whites are the world's biggest predatory fish, equipped
00:44with up to 300 flesh-rending teeth and a super-strong sense of smell.
00:50You could call these creatures the lions of the sea, but they eat sea lions for breakfast.
00:55Even though they account for one-third to one-half of the more than 100 shark attacks
00:58that happen each year, great whites usually only bite people out of curiosity rather than
01:03bloodlust.
01:04Isn't that reassuring?
01:05"...and we're gonna find a way to get out of here.
01:08First, we're gonna seal off this…"
01:12Well, at least in reality, very few white shark attacks are fatal.
01:17Now, this here is just your average great white shark.
01:21They tend to be about 15 feet long.
01:23But what we're here to talk about today is the greatest white shark ever caught on film.
01:28And here she comes.
01:35People call her Deep Blue, as she was first introduced to the public through Discovery
01:39Channel's Shark Week marathon.
01:41The largest ever caught on film is about 20 feet long and weighs an estimated 5,000 pounds.
01:48Despite her gigantic size, the sharp teeth in her mouth, and those freakishly beady eyes,
01:53Deep Blue isn't a nightmare.
01:55In fact, most great whites aren't.
01:57Deep Blue is about 50 years old.
01:59When she was first discovered near the Mexican island of Guadalupe in 2013, one diver felt
02:04so comfortable that he reached out and touched her.
02:07That someone was sharkologist Mauricio Hoyos Padilla, who gave Deep Blue her nickname.
02:13In a video clip of their encounter first released in 2015, a fearless Padilla basically
02:17high-fived one of Deep Blue's fins, because who needs both their hands?
02:22Even if you're okay with the prospect of underwater amputation, high-fiving a great white is a
02:27terrible idea because it can also endanger the shark.
02:31When a group of divers touched a different great white from inside a cage in 2016, one
02:35biologist called it, quote,
02:37"...one of the dumbest and most dangerous shark interactions I have ever seen."
02:41That's because in addition to endangering the divers, it could have prompted the shark
02:45to ram the cage and injure itself.
02:47In fairness to Padilla, he might have just been overcome with excitement.
02:51It's not every day that you get to see a female great white up close.
02:55As one shark expert explained to NBC,
02:57"...females are kind of elusive.
03:00We haven't really figured out where the females go and where they spend their time."
03:03However, Padilla had some idea what Deep Blue was getting up to.
03:07He suspected that gargantuan fish was pregnant.
03:10So maybe the high-five was his way of saying congrats?
03:13But maybe she's not quite as large as people say.
03:16Shark expert George Burgess, who directs the Florida Natural History Museum's International
03:20Shark Attack file, estimated that Deep Blue was closer to 18 or 19 feet long.
03:26That might seem nitpicky when you're discussing an animal that can bite off your feet altogether,
03:30but it makes a huge difference when measuring the largest animal of its kind.
03:34Deep Blue should settle things by agreeing to be tape-measured, no?
03:38No?
03:39Nooooooo!