Questions

Whale corpses found along beaches are no longer considered unusual in today’s age. Whether brought in by the tide after passing away naturally, or having simply been separated from their “herd” and then washed ashore, we have come to accept these occurrences. Until scientists began noticing a change in the whale migration patterns, and we began finding the whales themselves, from time to time, beached and missing large portions.

Researchers began questioning; What creature, that lie in the depths of those oceans, could possibly be big enough to cause such damage to these mammals? This was no family of predators taking small chunks to create a large missing piece, this was one single bite removed, the predator having torn through bone, marrow, and viscera as if it were nothing. This also gave a bite radius that measured up to 8 ft. This eliminated the possibility of it being a Great White Shark, known for going for the soft spots of its prey, and having a bite radius smaller than 3 ft. So, the question once more was asked, “What could be so large, and so strong, and somehow go unnoticed by humans, that could do this?”

The answer may lie in a creature thought to be extinct 2 million years ago. C. megalodon, as commonly known by scientists. Known to have been the largest predator in vertebrae history, weighing at perhaps over 50 tons and being anywhere from 46 ft to nearly 70ft in length, and the teeth alone being over 3 times the size of the Great White’s. The T-Rex was miniscule in comparison, in the Megalodon’s golden age.

“Sharkzilla”, as the creation is loving called by it’s creators, is a live-scale version of the Megalodon, created solely to test out just how strong a megalodons’ bite would have been. After sending one assistant flying off the testing stage and into the crowd of onlookers, the results where a stronger argument than most people care to believe. The “fish” Sharkzilla bit thru was comprised of an outer layer of thick styrofoam, while the inners were were comprised of bone, cartilage and organic substance…. (Green blood anyone?) Sharkzilla tore through every bit, as if it were a mere hunk of meat, never truly catching on the bone which stood in its’ way.

A photo, taken 70 years ago, has surfaced to the public eye in the last few years. Many may recognize it, as it contains an image of a Nazi U-boat, with the men standing at attention. However, in the background lies two large fins; one dorsel fin and one tail fin. The image seems to depict a rather enormous shark swimming along side to the men, unbeknownst to them. Based on the known measurements of the Uboat, the scientists realized the shark they were seeing in this image was most likely over 70 ft in length. The photo was originally taken off the coast of Cape Town, in Southern Africa, where in the last years’ time a fishing charter was heard to have been attacked. The remains of the charter were found capsized and reminded researchers of the whale corpses.

With these kinds of discoveries on the horizon, our oceans may seem a little smaller to us all. For humans, does this mean the extinction of the Cruise lines? Or could it mean that seeing those dolphins jump around at Seaworld may truly become as close as we get to our marine life in the coming years?

New discoveries are made almost daily in our waters, new life found and new knowledge gained. Yet, it seems there are new dangers we never thought possible, dangers we normally would not wonder about. Are you sure you won’t question what you can’t see the next time you go in?

June 1st, 2014

Amanda B. McCumber