Something Ate This Shark... But What? (Something Enormous Ate a Very, Very Big Great White Shark)

Smithsonian Channel on You Tube ^ | May 30, 2014 | Smithsonian Channel

[OneVike]

A group of marine biologists off the coast of Australia tagged a healthy great white shark. Then, a few months later, the tag washed ashore. When researchers analyzed data from the tag, they were confronted with a mystery that was deeply weird, and slightly terrifying.

In this video, we learn what the researchers found on the tag. A few weeks after tagging, the shark appears to have been abruptly dragged down into a deep ocean trench, then eaten. The tag remained in the digestive system of the animal that ate it for several days. Whatever animal it was seemed to be bobbing to the ocean surface once in a while, though it never plunged as deeply as it had after it ate the shark.

What kind of deep-dwelling alpha predator did this? Obviously it's very possible that the shark's tag was eaten, but that still leaves us wondering what could bite a hunk off a shark, then zoom down to an incredible depth and back up again? This video is a reminder of how little we actually know about shark behavior and deep sea life.

[UnwashedPeasant]

"Something Enormous Big Ate a Very, Very White Shark"

It was a very, very racist fish.

Or Moochelle.

[wastedyears]

How could a squid take a bite out of a shark?

[Finny]

I know that squid get awful darned big, unbelievably big. Yeah, I could see a squid doing that. That it grabbed the thing — whether it was the whole shark or a chunk taken out of it — and dove deep and fast with it seems more squid-like than shark like. I think sharks are more inclined to dine for a bit, rather than eat and run!

[Finny]

How could a squid take a bite out of a shark?

They have beaks. Wicked beaks. Squid get really, really big. Like, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea big. I wonder how big the beaks are on the really big ones? I was reading that some kinds of squid actually fold themselves back so they can get an optimum bite from their prey.

*shiver*

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Was this;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtofVGtHmWU

[UnwashedPeasant]

"So the next time you are about to be eaten by a great white, all you need to do is to grab it and flip it upside down and hold it still for about 5 minutes."

You can rub a great white's belly to get it to roll over on its back. It might not work, but it is worth a try.

[P-Marlowe]

You can rub a great white's belly to get it to roll over on its back. It might not work, but it is worth a try.

Is that from the inside or the outside?

[glyptol]

Here there be sea monsters. Forced to the surface by global warming and rising water levels.

[Little Pig]

Keep in mind too that squid only live a couple of years at most, so to get that big in such a short time they have to eat a LOT. A big one would probably need to eat a couple of decent-sized sharks (or equivalent) every couple of days to maintain that rate of growth. Here's the beak from a modest-sized "giant", with a body about 2 meters long. A really big one might have a beak twice this big. It wouldn't take that many strikes from an animal like this to kill a shark, or wound it badly enough that it could be grappled and pulled down.

[RandallFlagg]

A shark running across a hungry giant squid would resemble something very close to a shark swimming into a wood chipper.
They have nasty claws like a tiger on their 2 long whips, inside of the suction cups.

[RandallFlagg]

The colossal squid is said to live off of 1.1 grams of food per day due to it’s slow metabolism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_squid

[Rummyfan]

Obviously, something hungry!

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Leviathan.

[Little Pig]

Unlike the “giant”, the “colossal” is thought to be an ambush predator that sits and waits for prey. Hence the much lower caloric requirement. Giants on the other hand are known to actively grapple with sperm whales and pursue prey. I can’t find information on how much they eat, but it has to be higher than a couple of grams per day, particularly when the animal is growing.

[RandallFlagg]

VERY mysterious creatures.
Speaking of which, have you ever read Peter Benchley’s The Beast?
Loads better than Jaws. I read it while heading out on deployment -which made it that much more frightening.

[ScottinVA]

Moochelle was out for a swim... and she was hungry.

[exit82]

Leviathan.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Kraken?"