Monster 5.2-metre 'matriarch' great white shark caught
A team of researchers has caught a huge 17-foot, 2 inch (5.24 meters) great white shark weighing more than 1500 kgs off the coast of Nova Scotia in eastern Canada.
Ocearch expedition leader Chris Fischer reportedly told McClatchy News the shark is more than 50-years-old and is the largest white shark the nonprofit has tagged in the Northwest Atlantic.
“She is a very old creature, a proper queen of the ocean and a matriarch. She has all the scars, healed wounds and discolourations that tell a deep, rich story of her life going back years,” Mr Fischer said.
Researches collected data from the monster shark that will go towards 21 research projects, including an ultrasound, bacteria samples off her teeth and feacal samples to learn her diet. Blood, muscle and skin samples were also taken for medical research.
“She will continue to help balance fish stocks in the surrounding waters, and we look forward to learning more from this wise guardian of our ocean's eco-system,” Ocearch wrote on Facebook.
The group named the shark "Nukumi” (pronounced noo-goo-mee). She is named after a legendary wise old grandmother figure of the Native American Mi'kmaq people.
Nukumi was fitted with three tags, including one to record how deep she goes and another that will track her movements for the next five years. Ocearch is currently tracking nearly 60 sharks tagged in the Northwest Atlantic, and data has revealed they migrate down the East Coast, around Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico.
Ocearch has been studying white sharks in the Northwest Atlantic since 2012, and among its goals is to learn where they mate and give birth.
“She (Nukumi) was full of multiple seals and was round and robust, she had a lot of scratches on her face from seals that were fighting with their claws when she was eating them,”Mr Fischer said.
Ocearch shared a picture of the monster shark on their official Facebook page. It has now received over 6,500 reactions and 1,300 shares.
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