A
giant shark’s head pulled from the water by a fisherman has captured the
imagination of Facebook users – because it appears to have been chomped clean
off by something even bigger. Jason Moyce, also known as Trapman Bermagui,
posted an image of the severed head of a mako shark which he and his employee
caught off the coast of New South Wales in Australia.
He
wrote: “So this was all we got back of this monster mako. Unfortunately we
didn’t see what ate it but must of been impressive!!”
Mako
sharks, which can grow to be around 12 feet long, are known for their speed as
well as their propensity for jumping out of the water.According to Mr Moyce,
the head weighed around 100kg on its own.
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There have
been reports before of a large predator in the waters of NS Wales.Port Stephens
is in New South Wales. It is popular
with families and fishermen. In 1918, a report from Port Stephens said that a
shark of “almost unbelievable proportions” was stealing crayfish pots. The
fishermen claimed the shark as up to 91 meters (300 ft) long as
big as a blue whale. It was described as whitish in colour and that the water “boiled”
above it as it swam.
This report comes from Channel 9 news: A seven-metre
great white shark has been spotted off Adelaide's coast by a helicopter patrol.
The shark was seen 100 metres offshore at the Marino Rocks on Sunday afternoon,
a Shark Alerts South Australia Facebook post says. Nearby Nippers events were
cancelled and swimmers evacuated from the water "It's the biggest I've
ever seen as a crew member in the Westpac chopper. We put it down as 7m the
photo really doesn't do it justice," an unnamed crew member wrote. The
pictures caused a stir on social media, with some swearing never to step foot
in the ocean again, and others arguing the great white was unlikely to be that
large and labelling the sighting a "fisherman's tale" Shark Alerts
South Australia said the crew used their six-metre jet boat to estimate the
great white's size.
Speculation about the shark attack has lead to talk
of a megalodon, an ancient giant prehistoric shark being the predator.The
earliest megalodon fossils date back to 20 million years ago. For the next 13
million years the shark dominated the oceans
until becoming extinct 3.6 million years
ago.
It grew to between 15 and 18 meters in length .(The figures are based on the size of the animal's
teeth, which could reach 18 centimetres long, as no complete skeleton has been
found). The jaws had approximately 276
teeth, and studies reconstructing the shark's bite force suggest that it may
have been one of the most powerful predators ever to have existed.
Megalodon did not look like a huge white shark however, it had a much shorter nose with a flatter, almost
squashed jaw. It also had extra-long pectoral fins to support its weight and
size.
Megalodon lived in warm tropical and subtropical
locations around the globe. It had
become extinct by the end of the Pliocene (2.6 million years ago), when the
planet entered a phase of global cooling. As the sharks were dependent on tropical waters, the
drop in ocean temperatures likely resulted in a significant loss of habitat and
less food sources. The waters would have been clear ,warm and shallower when
Megalodon ruled the oceans. It is highly unlikely it could survive in today’s
cold, dark polluted seas. It would have to evolved into something which could tolerate great depths and cold
temperatures and see in the dark waters
So the mystery predator is most likely to be
another large shark or Orca (killer
Whale) unless of course there is a sea serpent or monster yet to be discovered
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