MetaFilter posts tagged with Shark and greatwhite

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.

These Sharks Don't Look Fake.

Effigy2000 — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:27:01 -0800

Spectacular video of cage diving with Great White Sharks in Guadalupe, Mexico. More movies and pictures of the Great White Shark.

Great White Sharks feeding on a whale carcass

KokuRyu — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 09:26:58 -0800

Great White Sharks feeding on a whale carcass. Ever wanted to see what a dead whale looks like? Find it here. How about multiple great white sharks feeding on said carcass? Find it here. How about a mad scientist who climbs on said carcass? And films said sharks with fricken' lazer beams feeding on stinking whale carcass?

Watching Jaws

cal71 — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 12:15:21 -0800

Great White Shark Live on the Monterey Bay Aquarium webcam. This is the second time [mefi thread] they've kept a carcharodon carcharias in captivity. They hope to raise awareness of ocean conservation and the complexity of Great Whites. They are far from simple killing machines as the media often makes them out to be. They are also endangered despite legislation to protect them. Amazing creatures though [youtube].

Dear Mr. Shark, if we put you in an aquarium, please don't breach all up on me.

The God Complex — Tue, 30 Sep 2003 21:31:30 -0800

The Shark That Won't Be Caged: everyone knows the Carcharodon carcharias--usually by its popularized name The Great White Shark--but not many people have ever seen one, due to the fact that one has never survived for any significant length of time in captivity. Until recently, it was thought that the shark's sensitivity to electrical fields was the culprit, but an aquarium in Monterey Bay is out to prove that theory wrong (additional stories on attempt:1, 2). A previous, accidental capture of a Great White in a tuna net off the coast of South Australia suggests that it could be possible if the stress level can be kept low enough.