Carlos Gaona and Philip Stearns captured the footage in Santa Barbara, California.
Researchers are now one step closer to the mysterious path of examining one of the ocean's fiercest predators.
What is believed to be the world's first ever video of a newborn great white shark was released on Monday Journal of Fish Environmental BiologyThe 5-foot-tall white pup could make scientific history.
In July 2023, wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gaona and UC Riverside biology doctoral student Philip Stearns were using drone cameras to survey the waters of Santa Barbara on California's central coast when they spotted what was thought to be present. Newborn great white shark Which was veiled with a “milky” white substance.
Gaona told ABC News that he repeatedly photographed this area in Santa Barbara because he had seen “large, possibly pregnant” sharks at this particular location. He noticed that sharks would appear in three to four weeks, so “on a hunch” he made it a goal to watch the sharks there “from sunrise to sunset” in hopes of seeing a newborn great white shark.
On that fateful day, Gauna says they had been filming for eight to nine hours already when they saw a large shark descend into the water and disappear. “What emerged was this beautiful, little, literally white shark.”
“I fell out of my chair with excitement, because it was like nothing I'd ever seen before,” Stearns told ABC News. Joanna confirmed Stearns' reaction, saying: “He did, he literally fell out of his chair. I think he shed a tear. I was concentrating on flying but it was truly an unbelievable moment.”
The birth location of great white sharks has always remained a mystery to researchers, because newborn great white sharks have never been seen alive before.
“Where white sharks give birth to their young remains one of the ocean's greatest mysteries,” Toby Curtis, a shark scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told ABC News in a statement. “Very small white sharks have been observed and studied in a few places, including off Southern California and New York's Long Island, but we still don't know specifically where they are born.”
“We think we have a piece of the puzzle,” Stearns said of his findings in Santa Barbara. “Research in the 1980s indicated that this might be the birth site. If what we saw was a newborn, this supports that assumption.”
Stearns believes the milky white material surrounding the newborn shark could be the pup that has shed its embryonic layer.
Gregory B. said: “We can probably assume — if this milky white coating is a result of it being in the womb recently — that this shark was born within hours,” Skomal, Ph.D., senior fisheries scientist at the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries, told ABC News.
“I think it's a really fascinating observation,” Skomal continued. “There's a lot of mystery when it comes to white shark reproductive biology.” “Every little bit we learn about these animals is absolutely fascinating.”
Great white sharks are listed as “vulnerable” worldwide and “critically endangered” in Europe on the IUCN Red List. Stearns highlighted the importance of lawmakers protecting the waters where great white sharks give birth.
“They are an important species for a healthy marine ecosystem, and we have seen that the loss of white sharks in other areas of the world has ripple effects on the ecosystem.”
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