Have shark researchers seen the first-ever newborn great white shark only hours after the baby shark was born?
A pair out west believe they have cracked “one of the holy grails of shark science” when they reportedly spotted a first-of-its-kind white shark pup about 1,000 feet from the beach.
A California researcher and wildlife filmmaker were looking for sharks near Santa Barbara last summer, and they saw a pure white 5-foot-long shark. This was different from a juvenile or adult great white shark — which only has white on its bottom with gray on top.
“We enlarged the images, put them in slow motion, and realized the white layer was being shed from the body as it was swimming,” said University of California Riverside biology doctoral student Phillip Sternes.
“I believe it was a newborn white shark shedding its embryonic layer,” the researcher added.
If this was in fact a newborn great white shark, it could mean that the Southern California region is a critical birthing location for the species.
“Where white sharks give birth is one of the holy grails of shark science,” said wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna, who captured the images of the shark on his drone camera. No one has ever been able to pinpoint where they are born, nor has anyone seen a newborn baby shark alive.
“There have been dead white sharks found inside deceased pregnant mothers. But nothing like this,” Gauna added.
The other theory about this shark is it has an unknown skin disorder that results in shedding and discharge, but the researchers aren’t buying into that premise.
“If that is what we saw, then that too is monumental because no such condition has ever been reported for these sharks,” Gauna said.
Great white females give birth to live pups. While in utero, the embryonic sharks might feed on unfertilized eggs for protein. The mothers offer additional nourishment to the growing shark pups with a “milk” secreted in the uterus.
“I believe what we saw was the baby shedding the intrauterine milk,” Sternes said.
Large, likely pregnant great whites have reportedly been seen in this California location. Gauna had spotted them there in the weeks leading up to the newborn observation.
“I filmed three very large sharks that appeared pregnant at this specific location in the days prior,” Gauna said. “On this day, one of them dove down, and not long afterwards, this fully white shark appears. It’s not a stretch to deduce where the baby came from.”
Also, the shark’s small size is a sign that it’s a newborn. The shark was thin, short, and rounded.
“In my opinion, this one was likely hours, maybe one day old at most,” Sternes said.
This location off the coast of California has long been proposed as a birthing location for great whites.
“There are a lot of hypothetical areas, but despite intense interest in these sharks, no one’s seen a birth or a newborn pup in the wild,” Sternes said. “This may well be the first evidence we have of a pup in the wild, making this a definitive birthing location.”
