A pair of white sharks were captured on video last week as they feasted on a dead humpback whale off Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
Insider reported, the footage was shared on the Facebook page of Captain John Boat, a tour company in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
Also, according to this report, tourists on the said boat tour were left shocked after discovering the two starving sharks.
The Facebook post also specified that one of the great white sharks was estimated to be more than 17 feet in length.
First-Time Occurrence
A report from The Boston Herald said, according to Captain John Boats' John Goggin, while looking into the dead whale, it was the first time he had ever seen such an occurrence.
He added, "People on board were very excited" that there was "a lot of yelling." Meanwhile, John Chisholm, a Shark researcher, described the shark as "enormous."
This Cape Cod event also proved advantageous to researchers who could tag some of the sharks for tracking. Relatively, eight sharks for a period of two days were found feasting on the dead whale.
The Center for Coastal Studies wrote in a post on Facebook, while it is sad to discover the death of an individual, documenting such occurrences is vital for long-term population studies.
Researchers had known the whale, although it was not clear how it died. According to a Live Science report, it was a one-year-old calf.
Peter Corkeron, leading the whale research at the New England Aquarium, explained that a dead whale is definitely quite an easy food for great white sharks.
Occasional Event Off the Cape
In a Twitter post, Chisholm said one of the most difficult things to communicate to people is the potential massiveness of white sharks.
"Until you see one in person," he also tweeted, it is difficult to appreciate the girth, which may be more remarkable compared to length.
According to Cockeron, sharks that feed on a dead whale take place occasionally off Cape. The majority of the concentration along the Cape is great whites feeding on seals, although whales can be a massive food resource for sharks.
He also explained, while a dead whale is certainly a lot of easy food for great white sharks, they are easy to find as they, not to mention, float and hang around.
Humpback Whale Carcass
The Center for Coastal Studies responded to a report of a humpback whale floating south of Stellwagen Bank. The researchers identified the individual as an unnamed catalog whale, the 2020 calf of Venom.
The said whale was famous to CCS scientists and even to whale watchers off the coast of Massachusetts.
Along with the recent discovery is a reminder from the CCS telling the whale watchers and scientists to keep their distance from whale carcasses, be it on land or at sea.
It added that conditions can be more hazardous than their appearance, especially if predators are still in the site, and touching marine mammals is forbidden by law, even after their death.
Related information about great white sharks feasting on a dead whale is shown on the YouTube video of In the Wild Productions' below:
Read also: Great White Shark Population Growing: Now Totaling 300 Individuals Off Northern California's Coast
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