Scientists were left astonished after discovering large sharks hunting each other for the first time.
Our oceans are full of mysteries that continue to fascinate experts, such as the transparent “sea walnut” that ages in reverse and the golden orb discovered at the bottom of the sea .
Some scientists were left stunned as they documented the first case of a shark eating another shark.
In one incident that occurred in the waters of Bermuda, experts say a reproducing female porbeagle shark was eaten by a larger predator, losing her life as well as the lives of her young pups.
The study was published in the Frontiers in Marine Science and described how the shark had been wearing a satellite tag at the time as part of a study researchers were doing into the vulnerable species.
She had been tagged in 2020 off Cape Cod in Massachusetts and measured about 2.2 metres long at the time.
But, in March 2021, depth and temperate data emitted from the tag revealed the shark had been attacked, as “the temperature remained approximately 5°C above ambient levels, even at several hundred meters in depth, indicating ingestion”.
Porbeagle sharks are native to the Atlantic, can grow up to 4 metres long and weigh as much as 230kg. They can live up to 65 years old and females do not start reproducing until the age of around 13, making the species susceptible to declining population rates.
Based on the location and depth of the predator, experts predict the culprit could have been a great white shark or a shortfin mako.
“The predation of one of our pregnant porbeagles was an unexpected discovery,” study co-author Brooke Anderson said.
“We often think of large sharks as being apex predators. But with technological advancements, we have started to discover that large predator interactions could be even more complex than previously thought,” Anderson continued.
She added: “We need to continue studying predator interactions, to estimate how often large sharks hunt each other.”
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