Mystery sea monster ate three metre long great white shark
Yahoo News June 10, 2014, 3:24 pm
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YouTube / Smithsonian Channel
It's easy to forget how little we know about Earth. The deep sea, for instance, remains mostly unexplored. So, it shouldn't be a surprise when scary questions present themselves, like, "What could have possibly eaten a three metre great white shark?"
As part of Australia's first-ever large-scale tagging and tracking program for great whites, cinematographer Dave Riggs and a film crew found the perfect specimen.
They named it "Shark Alpha" and successfully planted a tracking device on the three metre female.
Four months later, however, the tag washed up on the beach and was found by a passer-by.
Riggs was puzzled by the data it contained. Alpha had plunged straight down the side of the continental shelf, more than 1,500 feet deep. While the temperature of ocean water drops considerably in deep water, the tag itself actually heated up, from 46 degrees Fahrenheit to 78 degrees.
That means the tag had to have been inside the belly of another animal. Alpha had been attacked, and consumed, but by what?
Dave Riggs was shocked to have to ask the question; "What could have possibly eaten a 9-foot great white shark?" Source: YouTube / Smithsonian Channel
A Reddit post had the Internet's eager theorists at work. Some suggested an orca or a giant squid could have been the culprit.
While the answer isn't certain, scientists think it is likely that due to a territorial dispute or extreme hunger, Alpha was eaten by another shark.
They call the likely predator a "colossal cannibal great white shark," a name that might scare more than a few people out of the water for good.
Still, we're not ruling out a kraken.
