NEW ZEALAND – A great white shark has stunned scientists by performing an unprecedented act!
“Shack” is a great white shark known to frequent New Zealand waters and recently dove 1,200m below the ocean. Malcolm Francis, the principal scientist in charge of the tagging study, has called the dive ‘the world’s deepest great white shark dive record.” In addition, he says that the dive has extended the predators’ known vertical range by about 600 feet. Great white sharks have mainly been regarded as coastal predators.
New Zealand scientists tagged Shack and 24 other great white sharks with electronic “pop-up” tags at Stewart and Chatham Islands, over a five year period. The tags are used to determine location, depth and temperature wherever the sharks travel and are programmed to be release usually after 6-9 months.
Shack was hanging out in waters reserved for alien-like sea jellies and squids, along with fish deemed appropriate for your nightmares. Viperfish, fangtooth fish and gulper eels are just some of the creatures that inhabit such depths. Shack passed through the Mesopelagic Zone or “Twilight Zone” (600-3,300ft) and well into the Bathypelagic Zone or the “Midnight Zone” (3,300-13,000ft.).
“Before we started this work, five years ago, it was thought that great white sharks were cold water animals. But it seems the great white sharks are taking tropical winter holidays, departing New Zealand between April and September, for somewhere warmer. The maximum distance migrated was 3300 km,” said Francis.
