Comments on: Great white shark dissection

Great white shark dissection

nthdegx — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:44:09 -0800

Scientists at the Auckland Museum will be performing a necropsy of a great white Shark between 11am and 1pm New Zealand time on Thursday. Though they will be examining the contents of its gut, they will also, among other things, look at its sex organs (female) and jaw. The necropsy will be viewable on the web from 2pm NZ time (when's that?).

Selected trivia from Wikipedia, and elsewhere:

The only difference between a necropsy and an autopsy is that the word necropsy is more usually applied to animals.
Though reminiscent of the scene from Jaws, Dreyfuss's character was supposed to be examining a tiger shark.
Yes those tedious shark shockumentaries weren't lying. Great white sharks can detect traces of blood from 5km away. Apparently they can also detect a half-billionth of a volt in electric fields generated by moving creatures.
The shark was killed by accident when it became tangled in a gill net. It's against the law in New Zealand to kill a Great White shark deliberately.
At 3m and 300kg, this shark is nearly as big as some great whites.
The great white shark is an endothermic poikilotherm.
Great whites know how to evade dolphin echo location and have varying hunting techniques for a variety of species.
Most attacks on humans from great whites are thought to be "test bites" as they attempt to establish what we are. Humans' unique knack of getting out of the water explains why many attacks are non-fatal. Some have hypothesised that great whites don't like the taste of humans.

By: DU

DU — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:47:00 -0800

It's against the law in New Zealand to kill a Great White shark deliberately. NZ has been infiltrated at the highest levels. CODE RED

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:50:29 -0800

The necropsy will be viewable on the web from 2pm NZ time (when's that?). This fixed world clock is probably more useful.

By: nthdegx

nthdegx — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:54:22 -0800

Yeah, thaks for that. Feel free to change the link if you like.

By: elendil71

elendil71 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:01:53 -0800

Coool! I dissected a dogfish shark for a science fair once when I was a wee lad. Won second place, probably because my partner and I cut out the sex organs for specific viewing. Good fun. Thanks for the post. I saw a Great White while diving of the California coast once. It was at the edge of my underwater vision, just a shadow really, moving through the water. It looked like a bullet. With fins. I fled.

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:06:24 -0800

I don't know that I'll be able to follow what's going on without some commentary. Will there be voice-over explanations from a guy who sounds like an Australian holding his nose?

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:26:05 -0800

Shark sex organs! Internet porn has finally come of age!

By: gaspode

gaspode — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:35:09 -0800

Oh, this is cool. Thanks.

By: fleetmouse

fleetmouse — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:19:12 -0800

Rule 34!

By: yellowbinder

yellowbinder — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:37:50 -0800

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:34:52 -0800

I'm thoroughly confused: can someone give the date and time this will happen in Philadelphia terms? Also: At 3m and 300kg, this shark is nearly as big as some great whites. This is a great white, right?

By: tehloki

tehloki — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:01:58 -0800

I was about to suggest how the fact it was female might inspire some weird fetish sect to be aroused by the whole thing, but I see have been beaten to the punch.

By: Quonab

Quonab — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:26:07 -0800

Shark sex organs! Internet porn has finally come of age! Has it come of age or just jumped the... nevermind

By: djb

djb — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:47:30 -0800

According to Mary Roach's excellent Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, it's an autopsy when done to one's own species, a necropsy otherwise.

By: bruzie

bruzie — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:58:18 -0800

I almost posted this yesterday, then realized that I can't watch it this afternoon cuz I gotta be out and about and wouldn't be able to contribute to the discussion... Anyone know if it will be available afterward? 2pm NZ Time is when the webcast will be available (presumably on demand) - the live dissection is only for people actually attending in person

By: rodgerd

rodgerd — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:10:57 -0800

NZ time (when's that?) GMT+13.

By: nthdegx

nthdegx — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:03:25 -0800

Except GMT+13 isn't necessarily intuitive to non-Europeans, hence the link in the "when's that?" text.

By: nthdegx

nthdegx — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:03:11 -0800

Oh. It appears you can watch it live. Here's the streaming link but they're almost finished. Presumably the full video will be up from 2pm NZ time as they reported. They're about to take its jaw off.

By: rodgerd

rodgerd — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:13:16 -0800

GMT, or UTC if you prefer, is an international standard. Most of the world grasps it quite nicely.