Photo credit: Carlos Gauna/The Malibu Artist
Wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna and UC Riverside biology doctoral student Phillip Sternes may have captured the first ever images of a newborn great white shark using a drone. The two were scanning the waters for sharks on July 9, 2023, near Santa Barbara on California’s central coast when they spotted something they’ve never come across before.
Great whites are typically gray on top and white on the bottom, but the 5-foot-long shark the two spotted was pure white. This color is possibly because embryonic sharks feed on unfertilized eggs for protein and their mothers offer additional nourishment to the growing shark pups with a ‘milk’ secreted in the uterus.
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Where white sharks give birth is one of the holy grails of shark science. 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,” said Carlos Gauna, Wildlife Filmmaker.
