I recently swam with a juvenile Whale shark which was between 6-7 m long. After I got out of the water the first thing I said was how it blows my mind that there are white sharks of roughly the same size. I feel like people underestimate how incredibly massive 6 m is.
I have rolled out a tape measure to a length of 20 ft and doing that blew my mind, seeing one of these beasts that size must be utterly mind blowing and extremely intimidating!
You can stand next to a Chevy Suburban to get a sense of its length and yet, the shark is still longer! (For reference: Chevy Suburban's length is 5.73 m)
Amazing video. I have been immersed in shark biology since I was 15 yrs old. I am 63 today. I have relentlessly searched the internet for largest white shark and came up with the Malta shark, the Cuba shark, the Vic Hislop shark....all claiming over 20 ft. Nothing like an ACTUAL shark scientist setting the record straight. I had not heard of ANY of these sharks but due to the scientific approach to this video I realize white shark top out at about 20ft. I dove with them in Guadalupe Mexico and the largest was estimated at 14 ft. You cannot imagine how big a 14 ft white shark is when it rolls up to the cage you are in. Spectacular magnificent and awe inspiring animal. GREAT VIDEO!
Fantastic experience and I have always been a white shark fan I saw jaws when it came out and have been an avid admirer ever since and my name is Martha so jaws was fimed on Martha's vineyard but thses animals should be protected .
@@SaintMichael-js5khIm bot sure if this is true for great whites as it's for other sharks. Great whites give birth to usually only one baby, sometimes 2. An egg hatches in the shark, the newly hatched shark goes and eats all the nearby eggs resulting in no other siblings. Sharks usually have 2 places for holding eggs, the hatched shark goes to the other eggs in a couple of days and sometimes fights other siblings (still in the womb). Then the shark gets born and has to escape from the mother before it gets eaten
Excellent video, with a lot of solid information that was delivered with no sensationalism. Very professionally put together. Thank you for the information provided.
Came across the movie “SAVING JAWS” on Amazon Prime. I wondered what your thoughts were about it. Would love to see you go thru it and watch it with your commentary would be fantastic!! PLEASE DO THAT FILM!! Love you Brotha!!! 🙏🏻 PS. “Ocean Ramsey” is in it and the amount of gall she has to say “Keep your hands to yourself” while she spends the entirety of her time in the water touching and grabbing onto any and all sharks she sees was so APPALLING.
Hey watch Fin sometime if you have a chance its a good but sad film by eli roth about finning. Was incredibly educational and hes a big shark advocate and lover so I suggest it to people whenever I can ❤
Did you watch the Gordan Ramsey documentary on shark finning....I got halfway through and burst into tears. It just got too much for me, I couldn't continue. It took me by surprise honestly. I'm not a wimp usually x
That's just bad luck; I'm pretty sure Tunisian fishermen ain't very well off==they probably can't afford let it go to waste NOR can they allow a shark to damage their nets and long lines
@@valppx No, I'm quite deaf thank you. Being a realist is all...ranting about hardscrabble fisherfolk who incidentally catch a large white shark IS sad, but it is pointless---they didn't go out of their way to catch the shark.
I think that most of the desire to find a 20-25ft long shark comes from the movie, Jaws. I keep telling people, don't wish for them to get that big, 16-18 feet long is still a big @$$ shark! Great video, I like the attention to detail and scientific scrutiny that you always bring to your content.
Hard to believe now but great white sharks were not even a household name until Jaws came out. When the mayor in Jaws says to Hooper "what did you say the name of this shark is?", that's 100% correct as far as the general populace was concerned. Most people had never even heard of the great white shark before Jaws.
Long Weekend ends which is sad - Going to work Tomorrow and decided to check quickly what's new on YT before bed - and here it is - another awesome vid about sharks ;) Thank you Good Sir ! ;)
very informative video. certainly many fishermen have exaggerated the size of many specimens, although it cannot be excluded a priori that in the past, before their number was drastically reduced by humans, it could reach 7 or 8 metres, but the white shark still remains a animal that very commonly reaches 6 meters (precise or approximate) and this makes it the only predatory shark capable of rivaling cetaceans in size (at least up to a certain point) and one of the largest animals in the ocean
would you ever consider doing a video sharing your thoughts on sharks kept in captivity? like which sharks do ok in aquariums, how to keep and care for them ethically, and especially which ones you think shouldn't be kept captive at all. i was recently reading about some aquariums that keep whale sharks and i just can't even fathom how they manage, and i've seen plenty of discourse surrounding if they should at all. i'd be really interested in hearing an shark expert opinion on the matter
I think it's a guarantee there WERE 20+ foot white sharks. but probably you'd have to turn the clock back to pre 1600s and European industrialized sealing and whaling. Currently i think it's probably impossible with all the commercial fishing going on for a white shark to reach the age of maturity to get that large. furthermore sealing and whaling and pollution have probably limited their max size.
Oh they probably still here but a shark that old and that big probably knows not to be seen. I mean here and there fishermen claim to see 30 footers and yeah that’s looking for clout but in some cases shark is close to 30ft but could be in the 20’s but we’ll never know . I mean if my boat is 15ft and a shark seems to dwarf it I can see how you’d quickly go to the highest number you can but that’s still a BIG shark not 30ft big but even 10ft short that’s a big mama right there
@@dreammaker9642 I've been a diver since the late '70's and know that refraction caused by a scuba mask makes things look 25% bigger. Over that many years you get to be pretty good at estimating size. Bruh.
This video is perfect for what I tried commenting on an Ocean Ramsey video, where she claims to swim with a 7M GW shark. And no one liked when I brought up the absurd POV and size of it. It's like an up and to the left from shark video, and she's to the right and below it. 😂
@@reneesantiago6496 I agree, but I was just bring it up cause the claims in her video were so stupid, yet so many peeps in the comments seemed to believe it was a 21+FT GW, and as if it was common.
Of course when you 1.50m tall any shark is going to look like 7m to you 😂 I mean credit where it’s due her videos do bring good light of GWs to the public which is a far cry from how people use to see them but scientifically it’s worthless. Although I hope she learned not to harass digesting GWs
Lots of people lying about stuff on TH-cam... take EVERY SINGLE CHANNEL talking about ADHD and autism. I think YT appeals to pathological liars, unfortunately. Shame, really...
Hey Kris I'm a long time subscriber, but needed to pop onto my phone account quick so I can tease you about your animated great whites in this video having the wrong tail fins lol. In all seriousness though I absolutely love the show and glad I finally had an excuse to pop into your comments haha 😂
Can you do a video on 2nd Beach South Africa, and why all the shark attacks have been fatal in the last 20 years. Ive watched docu on them and they never explain their findings.
Most fishing photos use angles to make their catch look bigger. So those old photos are not surprising that they are done to make the sharks look bigger. Not sure if you know of him but Capt. Frank Mundus out of Montauk ( and inspiration for Quint in Jaws ) harpooned one that was massive. I've seen one photo where he is towing it into shore and it is massive, it was the girth that was really amazing.
I heard the story from one of my fellow fishermen, there was one who always brag about his catch, spreading his hands as much as he can,( before cell phones or smartphones) and showing them how big fish was and you will never have a catch like this,( nobody believe him anyway) they all got drunk one day at the beach party and cuffed him up by asking show us now how fish was big,he could jus spread his palms as far as handcuffs can aloud him🤣,and he stated "thats only the size of an eye of the fish"🤣🤣🤣Sorry for my English, i tried my best.
It makes me want to cry. Knowing we killed so many sharks for sport. I’m terrified of sharks. Ever since I saw a lady after an attack. But I always respected them. I was hoping for 25ft sharks. It’s sad we don’t have any. 😭😭😭 my hopes are broken. Ty for video
They're either like you said killed for sport, Killed for "food" Or they're just killed because they're "afraid" i wish all this was illegal:( but it's not because it's still happening and no one is getting held accountable for it...
Poe Girl was estimated at 17ft when she was tagged by Keith Poe in 2017. She has been loosely blamed (some news outlets straight out saying she is the killer) for killing Tomas Butterfield in 2021 and since then, she could be very close to 20ft and 5000lbs today. Sadly, i have not found an app that shows the west coast tagged shark pings, but I hope Poe Girl is still alive and well and dodging those fishing lines.
Osearch app has some pretty chunky tagged sharks and mor accurately measured too. Although a lot of tags are old but still some recent pings from old sharks which could be quite chunky by now
The picture taken on the boat with the fisherman sitting on the great white's back is incredible!!! If that is a real picture that shark had to be enormous. I'd love to see some more pics of that great white.
This was awesome no nonsense common sense. I wish you would do something like this on the crocodiles in Australia. I’m tired of hearing about the 29 foot Krys.
Another awesome video Kris. 🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈 I read in one of my shark books about a report (obviously false) of a 39 foot white shark caught off the Azores (I think) in the 1930's. I knew that couldn't be true. I also read about a pair of white shark jaws hanging in a bar claiming to be from a 20+ foot white shark, which were eventually accurately measured to be from a 16 foot white shark. I think there's definitely a possibility that there could be white sharks out there that are 20 feet in length. I feel like sharks should be measured with the caudal fin in its natural position.
I loved this video, and I thank you for creating it. The only thought I want to share myself is one that always arises in my mind at a screaming volume whenever I am faced with further evidence of humanity's destructive impact on the world's oceans, and it is this: We NEED to start an international, worldwide, moratorium on commercial fishing, and we need to start it NOW. The commercial fishing ban could be relatively short- maybe only five years, maybe more, but it wouldn't need to stay in place forever. We absolutely MUST allow fish populations to recover, or I fear that our planet will be well and truly ruined. I'm not talking about limiting indigenous subsistence fishing- just get the huge industrial trawlers out of the oceans, and put the rusting monsters in dry dock for a number of years. It would be doable, especially if the same governments enforcing the ban took responsibility for subsidizing the people who would face job loss. I think that humanity would find plenty of ways to live without fresh fish for a few years, and then our grandchildren will actually get to see what real, live fish look like. That's enough for now- if I keep up this rant, it will turn into an essay. I just had to put that out there. I know I'm not the only one who wants this to happen, and I feel that the more that good ideas are shared, the more likely they are to become realities. Also, my apologies if I've already mentioned my feelings about over-fishing on your channel before. I may have left a comment or two just like this one already, but this video really made my blood boil. I hate to see any species declining due to human greed. (And human stupidity.) All the best to you, I love your work! Have a happy day. --N
Awesome video. We should probably give some kudos to Peter Bencheley for making his shark in the iconic novel 'Jaws' quite large at about 20 feet long, but not entirely unrealistic in size. The only unrealistic thing about it is that he wrote it as a male shark, and l don't think there is any record of a male great white being nearly that large. One could imagine that Bencheley did his research on maximum white shark sizes and discounted the more fantastic reports before writing his novel.
You have really good content on your shows. This was very interesting. I believe there are 20ft whites out there. If the can grow 19 1/2 feet why not a foot longer.
Back in 2009 I visited Malta and did a trip around the main island with a former fisher man who now worked as a tourist guide. We went swimming just northwest of the main island when we saw a big fin just about 60 meters away. The three of us still in the water basically jumped back on the boat. We saw the shark swim by and swim away. It was a Great White Shart just as the Guide assumed from the back fin. He told us, there were thre different Great Whites hanging around Malta which fisher men met on a regular basis. According to the size propably two males and one female. The one we saw looked like fife meters to me so it propably was around four meters in length - they are so massive, they look bigger than they actually are. The guide said, it was propably the bigger of the two males which was about four meters long, the smaller one at that time around three and a half. The female however was way bigger, he said: at least fife meters length and massively built. Haven't seen this one, but from the one I saw, I easily understand why people think, the Great White Sharks are enormous and even longer than they are in reality. Lenght in itself does not necessarily reflect their overall size.
@@moon-moth1 Fun little story similar to yours: when I visited family in South Africa (december 2013), we went on a trip, including fishing on a boat at the embochure of the Breede river. I had to take a piss but since we had children on bord I did not want to piss in the river from the boat. So, since it was a nice warm day (december in South Africa is their summer) I jumped in the muddy water and relieved myself. Then I recognized something odd: As mentioned it was a beautiful day and the water was warm (even before pissing in it) and loads of people were at the beaches but no one was swimming. I asked my cousins husband, who stood relaxed on the boat, why this was the case. He said it was because of all the sharks. At the mouth of the river into the ocean there were loads of Great Whites, more deep into the river there were loads of Bull Sharks. At this exact moment I swear something touched my leg, so I flew out of the water like Superman and shouted at my cousins Husband why he didn't warn me, since I told him I was about to jump into the water before. He just shrugged and said: "Usually it's not more than two or three people getting killed by sharks in South Africa per year. Statistics were on your side." Later I found out that it was in this river where in 2008 I believe they caught the biggest Bull Shark of all time, measuring more than four freakin' meters in length. xD
When I was a kid the St Louis zoo had a full size replica of the 37 foot great white caught in Canada in the 1930's- I know that was a basking shark, regardless imagine walking into a building and over a 2 story open atrium, hanging from the ceiling is a full scale 37 foot long great white shark. Absolutely amazing, and I'm glad for everyone in the water they don't actually get that big. For anybody wondering that would have been in the St Louis zoo in the late 80's early 90's right when they got done with a large scale remodeling of the entire zoo. That shark was absolutely incredible to see
when it comes to discussions like this I use to compare it to the hight of basketball-players. The average professional is about 2m .... normally a little below. However there are some people who are even a bit bigger (e.g. Shaq or the Korean Center with 2.18m or 2.13m) So, I would just say (only my opinion) - the average size of a great white is around 5 to 5.5 meter > large individuals of that spezies are about 6 to 6.5 meters >> rare exceptions are around 7m and a bit above.
This was a good one, as usual, Kris. Astonished you can find so many diverse shark-related topics! Mantas are my favourite in the sharky clades; would love more manta content if you feel like talking more about them! Thanks for bringing some ocean to this Prairie gal.
I've always wondered if there was a larger sub species of GW decades ago that did grow larger and has since gone extinct due to modern pressures? Sort of like Orcas and their many different subspecies. Ocearch arenin the Mediterranean this summer so it will be interesting to see what they find and how big, if any at all.
There’s pretty good video evidence of a white that’s at least 19ft but genuinely could be that 20fter. Video was taken last year off the coast of Esperance in Western Australia. They’re in a 17ft boat from memory and the shark swims slowly past and is substantially longer than the vessel. Not surprisingly the guys didn’t stick around so we only got the one wide shot and then the one pan down the length of the boat with the shark exceeding it on both ends. The fisherman are convinced it was 20ft 🤷🏻♂️
Malta shark was measured twice by John Abela at 23' 5" and has the jaws from it the teeth interspace were measured by Iain Ferguson and Mark Marks on a channel 4 series equinox jaws in the med
And I bet it was probably right get at 20’ like the other sharks!! 23’ is a 3’ difference from the tip 5 that are all right at 20’, you see the outlier here?
The Malta shark's alleged length was just an exaggerated estimate, despite the claim that it had been measured. It was nowhere near 23' 5." I would guess that 18' is more likely. Its Dried Upper Jaw Perimeter was 112 cm. The Ledge Point shark's DUJP was 130 cm. The Prince Edward Island shark's DUJP was 143 cm.
These sharks are GIGANTIC! I can see why people so grossly over-estimated their size; they increased the length in their minds to make up for the massive weights and girths these monsters exhibited. As a kid, I used to envision dinosaurs by the lengths given, only to find that, when next to life sized sculpts or mock-ups, I was woefully underestimating their size.
Shark is 5.5 meters long and weighs 3.5 tons (Photo: Anna Gabriela Ribeiro/G1) At more than 5 meters long and weighing 3.5 tons, the second largest white shark captured in the world is on display at the city's Municipal Museum.
It was really interesting to hear the different ways that sharks are measured. Surely it has to be the cordal fin in natural position. We are measured standing flat footed. We don't stand on our tip toes to get a few more inches otherwise I'd be over 6ft instead of just under 6ft.
the size obsession is common in reptiles as well. everyone clames that a reticulated python is a 30 ft snake when in captivity they might reach 20ft sometimes and they are usually about the same size as a burmeses or rock python give or take about 2 ft. weirdly people claim that the komodo dragon is the longest lizard when really the crocodile monitor is about 1 ft longer on average
I mean coming from Gabon there’s parts of those equatorial forest where you know there are snakes bigger than 20ft for sure but I don’t think you’d want to go looking for them. Same thing with the amazone you know there are big anacondas there and usually locals don’t have a reason to lie to you about it but it’s not accurate measurement or sources at the end of the day. There’s a big difference between knowing there’s big snakes there and going to find them. Our equatorial forests are so thick you more likely to be found by the 30 footer than to find it 😂 if you get what I mean. Mind you it’s speculation on my part which is the start to find big shit 😂 but look at the tsavo lions, they an isolated population of lions that basically only eat buffaloes. Now idk how much you know about the Black Death but to only eat them you gotta be a mad man. So due to selective pressure these lions are not only jacked compared to other populations while still being the same species they also huge. And recorded huge not estimates but it’s easy to estimate those too cause females are basically the size of regular males which anyone who knows lions will say “excuse me what now?” the males are more than huge they like close to Siberian tiger huge. Just cause only having buffalo as a food source makes a hell of a selective pressure to be a cat on steroids. Recently too they found in some some parts of the amazone a completely different species of anacondas which they’ve found are on average much bigger than your regular ones we used to which is saying something but massive monsters haven’t been found yet although native tribes say they are there and I’d believe them cause those are definitely big enough to eat them. So it’s still speculation but that’s where you start off and I’m sure there may be more cases of isolated populations and strong selective pressure like the tsavo lions in other parts and animal species especially snakes that just grow like crazy. That’s why science is fun to me, I like to see what’s in the corners 😂
Agreed. I have a green anaconda. And if you google, you'll see national geographic and other groups like that that people consider reliable saying that the longest green anaconda was 28 ft. Total bullshit. The longest reticulated python wasn't even 28 ft. It was around 25 or 26 ft reliably. They just caught an alleged 19 ft anaconda which was string measured so it's not perfect but it was definitely a massive specimen most likely around 18 or 19 ft. But the longest one that they've ever reliably measured was just a little bit over 19 ft. And there's a couple that are probably pretty reliable that are around 20 or 21. Now Burmese pythons are technically the third longest snake behind anacondas, but the ones that they're catching in the everglades, are huge. They have consistently caught more 18 plus foot Burmese pythons then I've seen anacondas caught of that size. Now I do believe that the longest anaconda ever caught it was probably longer than the longest burmese, but consistently I think Burmese pythons get longer. But people are obsessed with the 20 ft number. Deep blue has never been measured chances are she's more likely around 18 ft. That doesn't sound like a big difference, but the difference between 18 ft and 20 is huge with great whites because we've seen reliably sized 18 ft great whites and not so much with the 20-foot great whites. I would love for an ocean search to get deep blue on board and measure her reliably. But I think it's pretty safe to say that if they did she's going to be somewhere in the 18-ft range. But I would love to be proven wrong
@@lizardkeeper100 yell if you willing to cross paths with groups of chimps or forest elephants by all means 😂 although the Gabon viper pretty unique to my country is basically the floor 😂 I love those snakes but I ain’t going in there, Darwin says let me die if I do 😭
whats sad is that it seems going from memories of the older shark weeks ,the average caught on camera measured and tagged GW sharks in recent shark week episodes are 3 fee shorter than the GW sharks that were tagged back in the late 80;s early 90s
What do u think about that "How big do great white sharks actually get" video? Dude seems to have gone through all the unverified claims analyzing them
How fun. As a kid, I swam in the waters around PEI in the Summers around 1970, summer camping vacations. Sharing the water with Great Whites. I guess my near 0 body fat was a massive deterrent. 😉
Vic's shark was never verified by an expert. Based on the photo evidence, it was probably closer to 18 feet in length. He once claimed that he had a 17 foot hammerhead, but in reality, it measured 14.5 feet.
Richard Ellis and John McCosker tried to contact him so they could measure it accurately but he didn't respond to their requests and soon sold it to the Japanese.
I think my consideration would be that sharks (if I understand correctly) grow their entire life (even if growing slows down after they reach adulthood) and considering that they are intelligent fish, could it be that the reason we don't have any bigger sharks measured is because they have learnt to avoid situations where they would end up in a position where we would be able to measure them? Let's say they avoid boats, nets etc. because they've learnt that there is more to lose than to be gained getting close to them and since they keep away from us, when they die, they die in places where their bodies get consumed by marine life instead of washing up on any shore? 🤔 Just a thought🤔😊✨🍀🦈
The Malta shark should be easy to estimate. The picture on the steps is at the Blue Lagoon. The stairs are untouched. Having been up and down those steps several times I can tell you it looks big.
I’m having to write a paper on climate change and my brain was about to explode, and it is finals week, so I am very pleased to find a new episode of shark bytes during my break in the bathroom. 😂😂😂 I always look forward to your stuff.
Every now and then, I’ll look around my house and try to figure out how much space a great white would take up. I’ll say things like “a great white would be bigger than this room is tall” or “a great white would be about as long as the distance from the couch to the front door”. For me, it’s a combination between an excited fear and also preparation. I’m from California, so I do run the risk of running into one when I go to the beach. If that were to happen, I would definitely be petrified and I know that fear can put you in danger if it causes you to freak out and act like injured prey. Because of that, I’ve been trying to familiarize myself with them as much as possible to decrease the odds of me panicking and flailing around. I want to prepare myself for how big they are and I tend to overestimate their size (20-25 feet), but kind of in a strategic way so that they feel smaller than I first imagined, and therefore less scary. I have no idea how much this will help me should I actually find myself swimming near a great white, but at the very least it helps me feel more comfortable at the beach knowing that I’ve somewhat prepared myself. This was a really fascinating video and I really enjoyed it!
I do the same thing with comparing lenghts of big objects to the lenght of a shark. But only because I try to imagine how big they are out of interest. Would love to see one in real life.
@@carastone3473 Cowardly people in real life face to face like him just cannot help themselves when they have free speech and a monitor to hide behind. :) Welcome to the internet.
@@moon-moth1 Don’t worry, I’ve spent the last two years or so learning all of that! To clarify, I really like sharks and I’m genuinely more scared of myself than them. I know exactly what I *should* do if I were to come across a Great White, but I realistically have no way of knowing how I would actually react and that’s what terrifies me. Because I won’t have the opportunity to safely and ethically swim with sharks in a relatively controlled environment anytime soon, imagination is the best thing I have to expose myself to a situation like that. In fact, it can actually be a really powerful tool. Maybe not for everyone, but it is for me and that’s all that matters! ❤️
The bit about technology for measuring sharks has me wondering how we know the internal body temperature of endothermic sharks. I understand that for some species that lab environment studies are an option but like how do we know the stomach temperature of a great white???
Interesting vid, though I'll stick with total nondepressed length. As the saying goes, there's always a bigger fish. If all these guys have come within decimals of the 20 foot mark, then guaranteed there are a few 20 footers out there. It's only a question of how many, and of course, how big exactly.
The longest white sharks reliably measured with their tail fin in a natural position (TLn) measure between 18' 5" and 18' 7." The near 20 foot lengths are the tail fin depressed measurement, TOT.
Kristian, I saw a video the last couple of days from another youtuber, I camt recall his channel. Osearch are coming to Europe to study white sharks. Here are a few thoughts. Their tracking shows Blue and Mako Sharks crossing the Atlantic. I think they appear off UK shores in the summer, where are they before then? That then poses the question, if white sharks travel great distances from Osearches data, is the absence of white sharks in UK waters an anomaly or a mystery. My view is show me the evidence either way. I suspect we will still be pondering the question for years to come/.
I think it is sad that a shark has to die to be accurately measured. Surely with all of the technology we have today, there would be a way to measure them underwater.
See even with technology it’s still an estimate and only way to have an accurate measurement is the fashion measure it yourself. That just science dabbling in precision, besides if populations are healthy it’s not a problem if fisherman fish them to eat or sell all the meat so long as they do it sustainably aka not with km of lines with hooks or a net scooping every indiscriminately. Now because we do the latter populations are not healthy and any shark his size dying is a big shame cause they then birth givers. To go back to measuring you can use laser dots and a computer to estimate the length but again it’s an estimate meaning you need to make assumptions compared to a measurement. However a good estimate is quite useful in its own rights and I mean a good estimate like the method I described not using your caveman eye balls and estimating this shark is 30ft cause in reality might want to divide that by 2. You also can’t measure them accurately under water cause one the shark is to going to sit still for you while you get a measuring tape out and two that shark will not let you close enough to do a series of measurement and if it did you’ll probably get bite for your troubles 😂
There is a way; they can use lasers and also, bizarrely, photograph them next to giant rulers. There’s been some interesting docos on Discovery sometimes about how they’ve done it
I believe they also measure sharks when they’re caught, tagged and released by scientists. Probably not every time but that way the sharks aren’t killed.
Did you forget Vic Hislop 20 foot 8 in shark in 87??? I'm pretty sure he has the record. Discovery Channel did a video of it in the 80s shows a crane lifting it in the air and it was so big the tail snapped off of it. Discovery has erased that video from existence because it's to mean to show that.
yep I have some pics of it somewhere. I think Vic isn't considered due to his beliefs on shark behaviour. That thing was the size of a Volkswagen in the girth.
Shark scientist in Malta chiming in - having met the fisherman (Alfred Cutajar) who caught the specimen in 1987 nearly every week doing data collection down in the central fish market (first of all, lovely guy, did not mean to catch the shark at all, was a perfect example of accidental bycatch), the animal was supposedly measured at 23ft 5 inches, which truth be told I find somewhat hard to believe even if various unpublished images that I've been shown do show the shark to be colossal. The whole event has reached near mythical status on the island so finding reliable information is incredibly difficult, especially as the jaws themselves seemed to have disappeared into the ether. I simply cannot find anyone who knows where they ended up. Finding them could help verify the approx size, especially in comparison to the Ledge Point Shark in this vid. I'm sad to say though that white sharks have basically disappeared from the Maltese waters, and we haven't had a reliable or verified sighting of one in a long time, although this could refer to any large shark around the archipelago, but that could be a representation on the wider Med than just here. Keep up the vids though, we love them down at the lab!
The Malta shark's alleged length was just an exaggerated estimate, despite the claim that it had been measured. It was nowhere near 23' 5." I would guess that 18' is more likely. Its Dried Upper Jaw Perimeter was 112 cm. The Ledge Point shark's DUJP was 130 cm. The Prince Edward Island shark's DUJP was 143 cm.
Definitely not a scientist speaking here, but watching lots of shark videos, they seem to disappear from an area either because the area's seals have disappeared, or there are Orcas who specialize in hunting Great Whites in the area- they bolt. There's a really interesting video of Orca vs. Great White which took place at Farallon Islands off coast of San Fransisco. All these people witnessed the Orca killing a big Great white- said he even held it in his mouth like a dog would a bird, showing off his catch to the humans. Anyways, after that incident, all the Great Whites disappeared from the Farallons for the rest of the year- and it is usually Shark central during Seal Mating season. th-cam.com/video/3uBFUumm3Dk/w-d-xo.html - That's the edited down version of a much longer program. Gives you a good idea of incident, however longer version gets into what actually happened and how- tonic immobility...etc. Most fascinating part for me was that ALL Great Whites bugged out of area for rest of year. Like dying shark either released a hormone other sharks could detect or perhaps the other sharks actually saw Orcas and split. But survival instincts incredible.
@@DatRockingBassist I belong to a messenger shark enthusiast group, we've compiled a lot of data from various sources (body lengths, DUJP, body weight, all types of information) for decades. My longtime friend, You Hung Lin, compiled much of the DUJP data from the scientific literature. One of the sources that he mentioned for the Malta shark's DUJP was Mollet et al, 1996. Henry Mollet has his own shark website, he usually replies to emails also.
@@DatRockingBassist I belong to a messenger group of longtime shark enthusiasts, we've compiled a lot of data from various sources for decades. Some of it is from scientific literature, some of it is from personal communication with experts. The DUJP data for the Malta shark came from Mollet et al, 1996. Henry Mollet has a shark website. Just google his name and "shark," and you can find it. I've tried to share it here, but the youtube community standards won't allow it. Here is a list of DUJP data that was compiled by the group: DUJP Data: MALTA- 112cm (Mollet) Bunbury- 1128mm (Gordon Hubbell) Port Fairy- 118cm Catalina Island (The Bone Clone jaw) DUJP is 118cm according to Andrew Sprott who once owned a set. Bondee's DUJP was 1225.25mm and DLJP was 1026.3mm (Simon DeMarchi) KANGA's DUJP is 125cm (in Mollet's paper) and 124cm measured by Simon DeMarchi. Anacapa 1985- 127cm (Gordon Hubbell) Ledge Point- 130cm (Gordon Hubbell) Gansbaai, S. Africa 1987- 137.5cm PEI - 143cm* (Gordon Hubbell) *1983 Alberton, Prince Edward Island, this jaw was rebuilt by Gordon Hubbell.
The longest reliably measured tiger shark that I've tracked down measured 15.' It was measured by Hawaiian tiger shark expert, Carl Meyer. The longest IGFA (sport fishing) tiger sharks are in the 13 to 14 foot range. Only two weighed around 1700 pounds. The largest white sharks exceed 5000 pounds and measure over 19 feet in length.
I'd say size doesn't matter after they start attacking humans, once they get that big, they're big enough. The laser measurement method at least doesn't rely on the shark being dead on the ground, which is nice. What's really amazing is how much they gain in weight after they get a certain length.
So is jaw size not a reliable method of measuring a shark? Mostly the ring of teeth survives, right? Is there no real correlation between width of the teeth 'rings' (I don't know what the correct term is) and length of the shark? I mean I guess there isn't or shark scientists would already use that, lol.
What about the Great White Shark that killed Surfer Lewis Boren in 1981? The scientist estimated that shark about 21 to 23 feet long by measuring the chunk missing out of Lewis and his one board ?
There are huge sharks in that area, those navy divers over at the Farralon islands estimated GW that attacked the one diver at 24 to 25 ft.Wasnt measured but they all agreed it was no less than 24,25 ft.
You said it yourself, ESTIMATE which is not a measurement. Could be a small shark with an absurdly big mouth hence why it’s an estimate cause you missing a lot of data
Vic's white sharks were never verified by experts. Based on the photographic evidence, his largest catch doesn't appear to be quite as long as claimed. I would guess that it was likely not longer than the 1956 Sete, France shark. Vic had a large hammerhead once, years ago. He claimed that it measured 17' in length. This hammerhead was later put on display, at Underwater World, in Mooloolaba, and its actual length turned out to be 14' 5.2."
@@scottmierzwiak7369 yes they were. Even video footage was taken of the capture and released on vhs. That's how I know. The 19ft shark was at Harvey Bay Shark Show and the other one was taken to Cairns, later being sold to China. The homemade documentary is called Shark Hunter.
@@calsurf72 I've read of a lot of different lengths over the years attributed to Vic's largest catch. One stated that it was over 22 feet. A couple of other given lengths were 20' 8" and 20' 3." These figures are all estimates. I've seen a lot of the photos and video footage from his largest catch. My impression was that while it was certainly a very heavy shark, it was probably not as long as the 1956 Sete shark, which measured 19' 1.5" with its caudal fin depressed. The Sete shark measured 7' 2.6" from nose to first dorsal fin (pre first dorsal). Regarding Vic's other (smaller) shark, which was on display at Hervey Bay at the Shark Show exhibit, it was later listed for sale and according to the article that reported the sale, the shark measured 5 meters. I am guessing that the scientist's names probably weren't revealed in the documentary (who have allegedly verified the lengths of these sharks?) Many scientists report their findings in the scientific literature. A white shark of this size would almost certainly have been recorded in a scientific paper. Is there a scientific paper that confirms this?
So ..does a professional who uses a tape measure that the government paid $5,000 for, more trustworthy than the same tape measure that a fisherman paid $15 for?
Scientists are trained how in to take accurate measurements. Fishermen are not. Mistakes can be made. For example, if you place a tape measure over the curve of the shark's body, this could add extra inches to a length measurement. Scientists know not to do this. Scientists are trained to take many detailed measurements. Look up the 1956 Sete, France shark online. There's a paper that was written about this shark years ago, and in this paper, you can find the complete morphometric measurements of this shark.
No, of course not. It's just pure BS. I rather trust Vic Hislop than any so called "scientist" because Hislop had more time on the sea than those pencil pushers.
@@CycoSven69 Google the morphometric measurements of the 1956 Sete shark. The Sete shark has a cast model in a museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. You will see how thoroughly and accurately that trained experts measure sharks.
I recently swam with a juvenile Whale shark which was between 6-7 m long. After I got out of the water the first thing I said was how it blows my mind that there are white sharks of roughly the same size. I feel like people underestimate how incredibly massive 6 m is.
Especially underwater the whole thing gets another dimension!
I have rolled out a tape measure to a length of 20 ft and doing that blew my mind, seeing one of these beasts that size must be utterly mind blowing and extremely intimidating!
I do the same thing when I’ve been in the water with whale sharks, it’s crazy
You can stand next to a Chevy Suburban to get a sense of its length and yet, the shark is still longer! (For reference: Chevy Suburban's length is 5.73 m)
@@SHARKBYTES please do a dolphin vs shark vid?
That was excellent. Scientific, logical, concise. If only all the TH-cam documentaries were like this one.
Thanks so much - glad you enjoyed it!
Amazing video. I have been immersed in shark biology since I was 15 yrs old. I am 63 today. I have relentlessly searched the internet for largest white shark and came up with the Malta shark, the Cuba shark, the Vic Hislop shark....all claiming over 20 ft. Nothing like an ACTUAL shark scientist setting the record straight. I had not heard of ANY of these sharks but due to the scientific approach to this video I realize white shark top out at about 20ft. I dove with them in Guadalupe Mexico and the largest was estimated at 14 ft. You cannot imagine how big a 14 ft white shark is when it rolls up to the cage you are in. Spectacular magnificent and awe inspiring animal. GREAT VIDEO!
Fantastic experience and I have always been a white shark fan I saw jaws when it came out and have been an avid admirer ever since and my name is Martha so jaws was fimed on Martha's vineyard but thses animals should be protected .
Seeing the pregnant white shark dead with her babies is so sad, they’re not fast reproducers, what a horrible shame.
I know I hate seeing people hunt sharks for no reason…a rogue maybe but randomly is tragic
@@cathylarkins9949 great whites dont see us as prey but when we swim, they think we are seal like thus why surfers get attacked
What is the reproductive rate of a White shark? To my knowledge, that is still a mystery.
@@SaintMichael-js5khIm bot sure if this is true for great whites as it's for other sharks. Great whites give birth to usually only one baby, sometimes 2. An egg hatches in the shark, the newly hatched shark goes and eats all the nearby eggs resulting in no other siblings. Sharks usually have 2 places for holding eggs, the hatched shark goes to the other eggs in a couple of days and sometimes fights other siblings (still in the womb). Then the shark gets born and has to escape from the mother before it gets eaten
@@YokarblueThat's true for sand sharks, but not great white. They don't eat their siblings in the womb.
Excellent video, with a lot of solid information that was delivered with no sensationalism. Very professionally put together. Thank you for the information provided.
Cheers Simon, looking forward to being able to present with those Jaws 😁🦈
Came across the movie “SAVING JAWS” on Amazon Prime. I wondered what your thoughts were about it. Would love to see you go thru it and watch it with your commentary would be fantastic!! PLEASE DO THAT FILM!! Love you Brotha!!! 🙏🏻
PS. “Ocean Ramsey” is in it and the amount of gall she has to say “Keep your hands to yourself” while she spends the entirety of her time in the water touching and grabbing onto any and all sharks she sees was so APPALLING.
It bothers me seeing all these photos of the majestic sharks that have been killed for no good reason. Such a shame.
Yes but in the defense of the people who did it weren't as educated about them as we are today and fear played a roll in their actions.
Hey watch Fin sometime if you have a chance its a good but sad film by eli roth about finning.
Was incredibly educational and hes a big shark advocate and lover so I suggest it to people whenever I can ❤
Did you watch the Gordan Ramsey documentary on shark finning....I got halfway through and burst into tears. It just got too much for me, I couldn't continue. It took me by surprise honestly. I'm not a wimp usually x
Karma. One day a species will stuff and display us
@@sheronasims6783 Makes you wonder if those sharks that are being finned were once whale killing Nantucket arseholes.
Seeing that pregnant female n her babies all messed up like that makes me sick to my stomach. Poor thing 😒.
That's just bad luck; I'm pretty sure Tunisian fishermen ain't very well off==they probably can't afford let it go to waste NOR can they allow a shark to damage their nets and long lines
@@nickmitsialisDo you even hear yourself....:/
@@valppx No, I'm quite deaf thank you. Being a realist is all...ranting about hardscrabble fisherfolk who incidentally catch a large white shark IS sad, but it is pointless---they didn't go out of their way to catch the shark.
The local seal population would disagree.
Love when you upload!!!
Highlight of my day
Thanks so much for your support!
@@SHARKBYTES you make everyone's day 🫶
I think that most of the desire to find a 20-25ft long shark comes from the movie, Jaws. I keep telling people, don't wish for them to get that big, 16-18 feet long is still a big @$$ shark! Great video, I like the attention to detail and scientific scrutiny that you always bring to your content.
Yeah whenever you see an article about a shark that's supposedly over 20ft, you can bet money the phrase 'real life Jaws' is gonna be in there.
Hard to believe now but great white sharks were not even a household name until Jaws came out.
When the mayor in Jaws says to Hooper "what did you say the name of this shark is?", that's 100% correct as far as the general populace was concerned. Most people had never even heard of the great white shark before Jaws.
Literally Jaws-coded
Long Weekend ends which is sad - Going to work Tomorrow and decided to check quickly what's new on YT before bed - and here it is - another awesome vid about sharks ;) Thank you Good Sir ! ;)
Sundays are for Shark Bytes!
very informative video. certainly many fishermen have exaggerated the size of many specimens, although it cannot be excluded a priori that in the past, before their number was drastically reduced by humans, it could reach 7 or 8 metres, but the white shark still remains a animal that very commonly reaches 6 meters (precise or approximate) and this makes it the only predatory shark capable of rivaling cetaceans in size (at least up to a certain point) and one of the largest animals in the ocean
would you ever consider doing a video sharing your thoughts on sharks kept in captivity? like which sharks do ok in aquariums, how to keep and care for them ethically, and especially which ones you think shouldn't be kept captive at all. i was recently reading about some aquariums that keep whale sharks and i just can't even fathom how they manage, and i've seen plenty of discourse surrounding if they should at all. i'd be really interested in hearing an shark expert opinion on the matter
This is a good idea! I’d love to see a video about this topic
I did do a video on this a while back, but perhaps an updated video with more detail could be good!
Great idea !!!
Marine life should live in the ocean. Period.
I think it's a guarantee there WERE 20+ foot white sharks. but probably you'd have to turn the clock back to pre 1600s and European industrialized sealing and whaling. Currently i think it's probably impossible with all the commercial fishing going on for a white shark to reach the age of maturity to get that large. furthermore sealing and whaling and pollution have probably limited their max size.
Oh they probably still here but a shark that old and that big probably knows not to be seen. I mean here and there fishermen claim to see 30 footers and yeah that’s looking for clout but in some cases shark is close to 30ft but could be in the 20’s but we’ll never know . I mean if my boat is 15ft and a shark seems to dwarf it I can see how you’d quickly go to the highest number you can but that’s still a BIG shark not 30ft big but even 10ft short that’s a big mama right there
@@dreammaker9642 I have been in the water with a 14 ft white shark and it looks massive.
@@drk321 bruh even 8ft Galapagos look huge 😂 goggles make it so much worse
I would think there were probably 30 ft whites in those ages.
@@dreammaker9642 I've been a diver since the late '70's and know that refraction caused by a scuba mask makes things look 25% bigger. Over that many years you get to be pretty good at estimating size. Bruh.
This video is perfect for what I tried commenting on an Ocean Ramsey video, where she claims to swim with a 7M GW shark. And no one liked when I brought up the absurd POV and size of it. It's like an up and to the left from shark video, and she's to the right and below it. 😂
She is not a good example of shark conservation!!
@@reneesantiago6496 I agree, but I was just bring it up cause the claims in her video were so stupid, yet so many peeps in the comments seemed to believe it was a 21+FT GW, and as if it was common.
Of course when you 1.50m tall any shark is going to look like 7m to you 😂 I mean credit where it’s due her videos do bring good light of GWs to the public which is a far cry from how people use to see them but scientifically it’s worthless. Although I hope she learned not to harass digesting GWs
Lots of people lying about stuff on TH-cam... take EVERY SINGLE CHANNEL talking about ADHD and autism. I think YT appeals to pathological liars, unfortunately. Shame, really...
@@moon-moth1 yup what can I tell you 😭😂 at some point it’s natural selection 😭 unfortunately shark tends to pay for it too
I'm a simple person. I see a Shark Bytes video and I click 🤷
Yes
Real
Hey Kris I'm a long time subscriber, but needed to pop onto my phone account quick so I can tease you about your animated great whites in this video having the wrong tail fins lol. In all seriousness though I absolutely love the show and glad I finally had an excuse to pop into your comments haha 😂
Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
Can you do a video on 2nd Beach South Africa, and why all the shark attacks have been fatal in the last 20 years. Ive watched docu on them and they never explain their findings.
Not sure if you read the comments I don’t want the keep going to new videos and making the same comment! I’ll just wait and see if you make one!
Most fishing photos use angles to make their catch look bigger. So those old photos are not surprising that they are done to make the sharks look bigger. Not sure if you know of him but Capt. Frank Mundus out of Montauk ( and inspiration for Quint in Jaws ) harpooned one that was massive. I've seen one photo where he is towing it into shore and it is massive, it was the girth that was really amazing.
17ft and supposedly 4,500 pounds. 1964. This was the shark that inspired Peter Benchley to write Jaws.
I heard the story from one of my fellow fishermen, there was one who always brag about his catch, spreading his hands as much as he can,( before cell phones or smartphones) and showing them how big fish was and you will never have a catch like this,( nobody believe him anyway) they all got drunk one day at the beach party and cuffed him up by asking show us now how fish was big,he could jus spread his palms as far as handcuffs can aloud him🤣,and he stated "thats only the size of an eye of the fish"🤣🤣🤣Sorry for my English, i tried my best.
It makes me want to cry. Knowing we killed so many sharks for sport. I’m terrified of sharks. Ever since I saw a lady after an attack. But I always respected them. I was hoping for 25ft sharks. It’s sad we don’t have any. 😭😭😭 my hopes are broken. Ty for video
They're either like you said killed for sport, Killed for "food" Or they're just killed because they're "afraid"
i wish all this was illegal:( but it's not because it's still happening and no one is getting held accountable for it...
Poe Girl was estimated at 17ft when she was tagged by Keith Poe in 2017. She has been loosely blamed (some news outlets straight out saying she is the killer) for killing Tomas Butterfield in 2021 and since then, she could be very close to 20ft and 5000lbs today. Sadly, i have not found an app that shows the west coast tagged shark pings, but I hope Poe Girl is still alive and well and dodging those fishing lines.
Osearch app has some pretty chunky tagged sharks and mor accurately measured too. Although a lot of tags are old but still some recent pings from old sharks which could be quite chunky by now
The picture taken on the boat with the fisherman sitting on the great white's back is incredible!!! If that is a real picture that shark had to be enormous. I'd love to see some more pics of that great white.
This was awesome no nonsense common sense. I wish you would do something like this on the crocodiles in Australia. I’m tired of hearing about the 29 foot Krys.
Another awesome video Kris. 🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈
I read in one of my shark books about a report (obviously false) of a 39 foot white shark caught off the Azores (I think) in the 1930's. I knew that couldn't be true. I also read about a pair of white shark jaws hanging in a bar claiming to be from a 20+ foot white shark, which were eventually accurately measured to be from a 16 foot white shark. I think there's definitely a possibility that there could be white sharks out there that are 20 feet in length. I feel like sharks should be measured with the caudal fin in its natural position.
It’s interesting how so many of the sizes seem to shrink down eventually!
@@SHARKBYTES Happens to everyone, perhaps the water was really cold!
@@AndyOdin22😂
I loved this video, and I thank you for creating it.
The only thought I want to share myself is one that always arises in my mind at a screaming volume whenever I am faced with further evidence of humanity's destructive impact on the world's oceans, and it is this: We NEED to start an international, worldwide, moratorium on commercial fishing, and we need to start it NOW. The commercial fishing ban could be relatively short- maybe only five years, maybe more, but it wouldn't need to stay in place forever. We absolutely MUST allow fish populations to recover, or I fear that our planet will be well and truly ruined.
I'm not talking about limiting indigenous subsistence fishing- just get the huge industrial trawlers out of the oceans, and put the rusting monsters in dry dock for a number of years. It would be doable, especially if the same governments enforcing the ban took responsibility for subsidizing the people who would face job loss. I think that humanity would find plenty of ways to live without fresh fish for a few years, and then our grandchildren will actually get to see what real, live fish look like.
That's enough for now- if I keep up this rant, it will turn into an essay. I just had to put that out there. I know I'm not the only one who wants this to happen, and I feel that the more that good ideas are shared, the more likely they are to become realities.
Also, my apologies if I've already mentioned my feelings about over-fishing on your channel before. I may have left a comment or two just like this one already, but this video really made my blood boil. I hate to see any species declining due to human greed. (And human stupidity.)
All the best to you, I love your work! Have a happy day. --N
Loved this. You tube needs more this.
Awesome video. We should probably give some kudos to Peter Bencheley for making his shark in the iconic novel 'Jaws' quite large at about 20 feet long, but not entirely unrealistic in size. The only unrealistic thing about it is that he wrote it as a male shark, and l don't think there is any record of a male great white being nearly that large. One could imagine that Bencheley did his research on maximum white shark sizes and discounted the more fantastic reports before writing his novel.
Love it when a new shark bytes vid pops up thanks Kris :-)
Sundays are good! 😁
Same 🫶
I really enjoy watching your videos they are really bang on 💯💥🔥
You have really good content on your shows. This was very interesting. I believe there are 20ft whites out there. If the can grow 19 1/2 feet why not a foot longer.
Thank you für this one. Learned a lot today 👍
Very informative and engaging, as usual. Love it.
Back in 2009 I visited Malta and did a trip around the main island with a former fisher man who now worked as a tourist guide. We went swimming just northwest of the main island when we saw a big fin just about 60 meters away. The three of us still in the water basically jumped back on the boat. We saw the shark swim by and swim away. It was a Great White Shart just as the Guide assumed from the back fin. He told us, there were thre different Great Whites hanging around Malta which fisher men met on a regular basis. According to the size propably two males and one female. The one we saw looked like fife meters to me so it propably was around four meters in length - they are so massive, they look bigger than they actually are. The guide said, it was propably the bigger of the two males which was about four meters long, the smaller one at that time around three and a half. The female however was way bigger, he said: at least fife meters length and massively built. Haven't seen this one, but from the one I saw, I easily understand why people think, the Great White Sharks are enormous and even longer than they are in reality. Lenght in itself does not necessarily reflect their overall size.
However: Seeing one in person, be it from a boat and not from a dive, still was one of the coolest experiences in my life. Awesome creatures!
@@moon-moth1 Fun little story similar to yours: when I visited family in South Africa (december 2013), we went on a trip, including fishing on a boat at the embochure of the Breede river. I had to take a piss but since we had children on bord I did not want to piss in the river from the boat. So, since it was a nice warm day (december in South Africa is their summer) I jumped in the muddy water and relieved myself. Then I recognized something odd: As mentioned it was a beautiful day and the water was warm (even before pissing in it) and loads of people were at the beaches but no one was swimming. I asked my cousins husband, who stood relaxed on the boat, why this was the case.
He said it was because of all the sharks.
At the mouth of the river into the ocean there were loads of Great Whites, more deep into the river there were loads of Bull Sharks.
At this exact moment I swear something touched my leg, so I flew out of the water like Superman and shouted at my cousins Husband why he didn't warn me, since I told him I was about to jump into the water before. He just shrugged and said: "Usually it's not more than two or three people getting killed by sharks in South Africa per year. Statistics were on your side."
Later I found out that it was in this river where in 2008 I believe they caught the biggest Bull Shark of all time, measuring more than four freakin' meters in length. xD
I'm surprised it wasn't just a pee that you had when something touched your leg.
The water might have gone a bit more brown coloured !
That's why I don't swim 😅 but I would love to see a great white...from a safe spot...and a bit distance 😂
Calling it a "great white shart" is probably a Freudian slip as I just might have sharted myself if I had seen it.
thank you for these videos, I always learn so much!
When I was a kid the St Louis zoo had a full size replica of the 37 foot great white caught in Canada in the 1930's- I know that was a basking shark, regardless imagine walking into a building and over a 2 story open atrium, hanging from the ceiling is a full scale 37 foot long great white shark. Absolutely amazing, and I'm glad for everyone in the water they don't actually get that big. For anybody wondering that would have been in the St Louis zoo in the late 80's early 90's right when they got done with a large scale remodeling of the entire zoo. That shark was absolutely incredible to see
Very nice Video 👍🏻
I literally get excited when I see you’ve posted another video I’ve genuinely learnt so much from watching them they are so interesting ❤
Hello. Good Afternoon Kris 🦈🦈 Happy Shark Sunday 🦈🦈
Absolute units
I was blessed to dive with them off south Africa 🇿🇦 🙏
Kris,
Has anyone been able to get an accurate measurement underwater of a live GWS? Deep Blue perhaps?
Love your stufff bud
What about the shark which killed Lewis Boren on 1981? Based on the bite diameter, they estimated that to be 23 feet long.
You said it
- Estimated
@@jockojockoson9995 But it would still be cool to hear about that, and with many of these sharks they are using estimates as well.
@@andrewhall7176 Absolutely. There’s no doubt that was a massive shark.
@@jockojockoson9995 It's scary to think what might lurk in those blue depths.
You said it , estimate.
when it comes to discussions like this I use to compare it to the hight of basketball-players.
The average professional is about 2m .... normally a little below. However there are some people who are even a bit bigger (e.g. Shaq or the Korean Center with 2.18m or 2.13m)
So, I would just say (only my opinion) - the average size of a great white is around 5 to 5.5 meter > large individuals of that spezies are about 6 to 6.5 meters >> rare exceptions are around 7m and a bit above.
Very interesting video, very sad to see all the photos of dead sharks though 😢
Love the channel, pure nightmare fuel
Thanks, good video. SO sad that may of these apex predators are in decline
Hey man cool vid! How big do you think was the shark caught in Greece in 1981 was?
This was a good one, as usual, Kris. Astonished you can find so many diverse shark-related topics!
Mantas are my favourite in the sharky clades; would love more manta content if you feel like talking more about them!
Thanks for bringing some ocean to this Prairie gal.
That Gulf of Gabes shark might be the same shark I saw off Alexandria Egypt in 1989 while aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. That was one huge shark.
I've always wondered if there was a larger sub species of GW decades ago that did grow larger and has since gone extinct due to modern pressures? Sort of like Orcas and their many different subspecies. Ocearch arenin the Mediterranean this summer so it will be interesting to see what they find and how big, if any at all.
Huh. I had never heard of the New Brunswick Shark before. Now Research shall now be had!
As a freshwater angler, I know perspective can make a fish appear huge in a photograph!
Any chance you could do a similar video for tiger sharks? Cheers
Will there ever be a Great White Shark Bytes special where you go diving with Great Whites?
Not if mama shark bytes has an opinion!
Noooo what would we do without Sir SharkyMcBouncyHair?!?!?!
Absolutely if I get the chance to!
Not in my lifetime you crazy boy!
@@SHARKBYTES is deep blue the biggest white shark?
There’s pretty good video evidence of a white that’s at least 19ft but genuinely could be that 20fter. Video was taken last year off the coast of Esperance in Western Australia. They’re in a 17ft boat from memory and the shark swims slowly past and is substantially longer than the vessel. Not surprisingly the guys didn’t stick around so we only got the one wide shot and then the one pan down the length of the boat with the shark exceeding it on both ends. The fisherman are convinced it was 20ft 🤷🏻♂️
I couldn't imagine 16 foot in person. Longer than my car.
Buuuut fisherman tell talllllll tales 😂
Was cage diving in Cape Town back in 2014.
The biggest was over 14ft and it was massive like an estate car going past you.
Malta shark was measured twice by John Abela at 23' 5" and has the jaws from it the teeth interspace were measured by Iain Ferguson and Mark Marks on a channel 4 series equinox jaws in the med
And I bet it was probably right get at 20’ like the other sharks!!
23’ is a 3’ difference from the tip 5 that are all right at 20’, you see the outlier here?
The Malta shark's alleged length was just an exaggerated estimate, despite the claim that it had been measured. It was nowhere near 23' 5." I would guess that 18' is more likely. Its Dried Upper Jaw Perimeter was 112 cm. The Ledge Point shark's DUJP was 130 cm. The Prince Edward Island shark's DUJP was 143 cm.
Pleace more about Mittelmeer!
Greetings from germany
These sharks are GIGANTIC! I can see why people so grossly over-estimated their size; they increased the length in their minds to make up for the massive weights and girths these monsters exhibited. As a kid, I used to envision dinosaurs by the lengths given, only to find that, when next to life sized sculpts or mock-ups, I was woefully underestimating their size.
Shark is 5.5 meters long and weighs 3.5 tons (Photo: Anna Gabriela Ribeiro/G1)
At more than 5 meters long and weighing 3.5 tons, the second largest white shark captured in the world is on display at the city's Municipal Museum.
Good video
Lovely video mate 😊. I love great white Sharks. Thank you for saying there could be over 20 feet Great White Sharks in the world 😊
It was really interesting to hear the different ways that sharks are measured. Surely it has to be the cordal fin in natural position. We are measured standing flat footed. We don't stand on our tip toes to get a few more inches otherwise I'd be over 6ft instead of just under 6ft.
the size obsession is common in reptiles as well. everyone clames that a reticulated python is a 30 ft snake when in captivity they might reach 20ft sometimes and they are usually about the same size as a burmeses or rock python give or take about 2 ft. weirdly people claim that the komodo dragon is the longest lizard when really the crocodile monitor is about 1 ft longer on average
I mean coming from Gabon there’s parts of those equatorial forest where you know there are snakes bigger than 20ft for sure but I don’t think you’d want to go looking for them. Same thing with the amazone you know there are big anacondas there and usually locals don’t have a reason to lie to you about it but it’s not accurate measurement or sources at the end of the day. There’s a big difference between knowing there’s big snakes there and going to find them. Our equatorial forests are so thick you more likely to be found by the 30 footer than to find it 😂 if you get what I mean.
Mind you it’s speculation on my part which is the start to find big shit 😂 but look at the tsavo lions, they an isolated population of lions that basically only eat buffaloes. Now idk how much you know about the Black Death but to only eat them you gotta be a mad man. So due to selective pressure these lions are not only jacked compared to other populations while still being the same species they also huge. And recorded huge not estimates but it’s easy to estimate those too cause females are basically the size of regular males which anyone who knows lions will say “excuse me what now?” the males are more than huge they like close to Siberian tiger huge. Just cause only having buffalo as a food source makes a hell of a selective pressure to be a cat on steroids.
Recently too they found in some some parts of the amazone a completely different species of anacondas which they’ve found are on average much bigger than your regular ones we used to which is saying something but massive monsters haven’t been found yet although native tribes say they are there and I’d believe them cause those are definitely big enough to eat them. So it’s still speculation but that’s where you start off and I’m sure there may be more cases of isolated populations and strong selective pressure like the tsavo lions in other parts and animal species especially snakes that just grow like crazy. That’s why science is fun to me, I like to see what’s in the corners 😂
Agreed. I have a green anaconda. And if you google, you'll see national geographic and other groups like that that people consider reliable saying that the longest green anaconda was 28 ft. Total bullshit. The longest reticulated python wasn't even 28 ft. It was around 25 or 26 ft reliably. They just caught an alleged 19 ft anaconda which was string measured so it's not perfect but it was definitely a massive specimen most likely around 18 or 19 ft. But the longest one that they've ever reliably measured was just a little bit over 19 ft. And there's a couple that are probably pretty reliable that are around 20 or 21. Now Burmese pythons are technically the third longest snake behind anacondas, but the ones that they're catching in the everglades, are huge. They have consistently caught more 18 plus foot Burmese pythons then I've seen anacondas caught of that size. Now I do believe that the longest anaconda ever caught it was probably longer than the longest burmese, but consistently I think Burmese pythons get longer. But people are obsessed with the 20 ft number. Deep blue has never been measured chances are she's more likely around 18 ft. That doesn't sound like a big difference, but the difference between 18 ft and 20 is huge with great whites because we've seen reliably sized 18 ft great whites and not so much with the 20-foot great whites. I would love for an ocean search to get deep blue on board and measure her reliably. But I think it's pretty safe to say that if they did she's going to be somewhere in the 18-ft range. But I would love to be proven wrong
The largest reticulated python in captivity was measured at 26 feet.
@@dreammaker9642 I would happily look for snake in the forest near you! actually it is on my bucket list, I love the reptiles of africa!
@@lizardkeeper100 yell if you willing to cross paths with groups of chimps or forest elephants by all means 😂 although the Gabon viper pretty unique to my country is basically the floor 😂 I love those snakes but I ain’t going in there, Darwin says let me die if I do 😭
whats sad is that it seems going from memories of the older shark weeks ,the average caught on camera measured and tagged GW sharks in recent shark week episodes are 3 fee shorter than the GW sharks that were tagged back in the late 80;s early 90s
We keep killing them😢
What do u think about that "How big do great white sharks actually get" video? Dude seems to have gone through all the unverified claims analyzing them
Good video from Wild world, although I still think there’s some in there that are a little larger than they actually were
How fun. As a kid, I swam in the waters around PEI in the Summers around 1970, summer camping vacations. Sharing the water with Great Whites. I guess my near 0 body fat was a massive deterrent. 😉
Absolutely- I imagine the thinner of us look like a Slim Jim to the Great white. They want that ribeye with lots of fat on it.
Vic Hislop claimed one of the white sharks he caught off the coast of Victoria in 1987 was 20’ 8”, how valid or accurate do you think his claim is?
Vic's shark was never verified by an expert. Based on the photo evidence, it was probably closer to 18 feet in length. He once claimed that he had a 17 foot hammerhead, but in reality, it measured 14.5 feet.
@@scottmierzwiak7369 Vic is an expert. He has seen more gws than any so called "scientist".
Richard Ellis and John McCosker tried to contact him so they could measure it accurately but he didn't respond to their requests and soon sold it to the Japanese.
I think my consideration would be that sharks (if I understand correctly) grow their entire life (even if growing slows down after they reach adulthood) and considering that they are intelligent fish, could it be that the reason we don't have any bigger sharks measured is because they have learnt to avoid situations where they would end up in a position where we would be able to measure them? Let's say they avoid boats, nets etc. because they've learnt that there is more to lose than to be gained getting close to them and since they keep away from us, when they die, they die in places where their bodies get consumed by marine life instead of washing up on any shore? 🤔 Just a thought🤔😊✨🍀🦈
The Malta shark should be easy to estimate. The picture on the steps is at the Blue Lagoon. The stairs are untouched. Having been up and down those steps several times I can tell you it looks big.
The great white caught in malta was a monster!
I’m having to write a paper on climate change and my brain was about to explode, and it is finals week, so I am very pleased to find a new episode of shark bytes during my break in the bathroom. 😂😂😂 I always look forward to your stuff.
Bathroom?! So you're 14min on the toilet 💩 while watching that video? 🤢
just kidding 😋
Good luck with your paper 🍀 fins crossed 🦈🦈🦈
Every now and then, I’ll look around my house and try to figure out how much space a great white would take up. I’ll say things like “a great white would be bigger than this room is tall” or “a great white would be about as long as the distance from the couch to the front door”. For me, it’s a combination between an excited fear and also preparation. I’m from California, so I do run the risk of running into one when I go to the beach. If that were to happen, I would definitely be petrified and I know that fear can put you in danger if it causes you to freak out and act like injured prey. Because of that, I’ve been trying to familiarize myself with them as much as possible to decrease the odds of me panicking and flailing around. I want to prepare myself for how big they are and I tend to overestimate their size (20-25 feet), but kind of in a strategic way so that they feel smaller than I first imagined, and therefore less scary. I have no idea how much this will help me should I actually find myself swimming near a great white, but at the very least it helps me feel more comfortable at the beach knowing that I’ve somewhat prepared myself. This was a really fascinating video and I really enjoyed it!
I do the same thing with comparing lenghts of big objects to the lenght of a shark. But only because I try to imagine how big they are out of interest. Would love to see one in real life.
@@moon-moth1no need to be rude 🤷♀️
@@carastone3473 Cowardly people in real life face to face like him just cannot help themselves when they have free speech and a monitor to hide behind. :) Welcome to the internet.
It’s always fun to imagine them in certain known spaces like a back garden (I do it all the time)
@@moon-moth1 Don’t worry, I’ve spent the last two years or so learning all of that! To clarify, I really like sharks and I’m genuinely more scared of myself than them. I know exactly what I *should* do if I were to come across a Great White, but I realistically have no way of knowing how I would actually react and that’s what terrifies me. Because I won’t have the opportunity to safely and ethically swim with sharks in a relatively controlled environment anytime soon, imagination is the best thing I have to expose myself to a situation like that. In fact, it can actually be a really powerful tool. Maybe not for everyone, but it is for me and that’s all that matters! ❤️
I was just thinking minutes ago, “I wonder if/when there will be another shark bites episode again” here we are!
Every Sunday at 9pm GMT - you’ll find us here 😁🦈
@@SHARKBYTES that’s good to hear! I’m happy to catch it as soon as it was posted 😄
The bit about technology for measuring sharks has me wondering how we know the internal body temperature of endothermic sharks. I understand that for some species that lab environment studies are an option but like how do we know the stomach temperature of a great white???
Do you feel that 150-200 years ago that GWS in excess of 20 feet were relatively common?
I think its almost a guarantee.
Interesting vid, though I'll stick with total nondepressed length. As the saying goes, there's always a bigger fish. If all these guys have come within decimals of the 20 foot mark, then guaranteed there are a few 20 footers out there. It's only a question of how many, and of course, how big exactly.
The longest white sharks reliably measured with their tail fin in a natural position (TLn) measure between 18' 5" and 18' 7." The near 20 foot lengths are the tail fin depressed measurement, TOT.
Kristian, I saw a video the last couple of days from another youtuber, I camt recall his channel. Osearch are coming to Europe to study white sharks. Here are a few thoughts. Their tracking shows Blue and Mako Sharks crossing the Atlantic. I think they appear off UK shores in the summer, where are they before then? That then poses the question, if white sharks travel great distances from Osearches data, is the absence of white sharks in UK waters an anomaly or a mystery. My view is show me the evidence either way. I suspect we will still be pondering the question for years to come/.
I think it is sad that a shark has to die to be accurately measured. Surely with all of the technology we have today, there would be a way to measure them underwater.
See even with technology it’s still an estimate and only way to have an accurate measurement is the fashion measure it yourself. That just science dabbling in precision, besides if populations are healthy it’s not a problem if fisherman fish them to eat or sell all the meat so long as they do it sustainably aka not with km of lines with hooks or a net scooping every indiscriminately. Now because we do the latter populations are not healthy and any shark his size dying is a big shame cause they then birth givers.
To go back to measuring you can use laser dots and a computer to estimate the length but again it’s an estimate meaning you need to make assumptions compared to a measurement. However a good estimate is quite useful in its own rights and I mean a good estimate like the method I described not using your caveman eye balls and estimating this shark is 30ft cause in reality might want to divide that by 2. You also can’t measure them accurately under water cause one the shark is to going to sit still for you while you get a measuring tape out and two that shark will not let you close enough to do a series of measurement and if it did you’ll probably get bite for your troubles 😂
Just thought of it but there is one measuring method that’s a bit intrusive but doesn’t kill the shark. Look for the ship Osearch
There is a way; they can use lasers and also, bizarrely, photograph them next to giant rulers. There’s been some interesting docos on Discovery sometimes about how they’ve done it
It's called the holy shit factor, when you are in the water swimming and you see it.. the bigger the shark the bigger the shart
I believe they also measure sharks when they’re caught, tagged and released by scientists. Probably not every time but that way the sharks aren’t killed.
What about Deep Blue or Haole Girl? Aren't they considered to be at least 20 feet ling?
Watch the video till the end!!!!
Did you forget Vic Hislop 20 foot 8 in shark in 87??? I'm pretty sure he has the record. Discovery Channel did a video of it in the 80s shows a crane lifting it in the air and it was so big the tail snapped off of it. Discovery has erased that video from existence because it's to mean to show that.
yep I have some pics of it somewhere. I think Vic isn't considered due to his beliefs on shark behaviour. That thing was the size of a Volkswagen in the girth.
So sad to see all these beautiful sharks dead 😢
💔💔💔💔💔
I wonder what the average age of these sharks were? Do you know if that was estimated at the time?
Proud tunisian and shark nerd xd ❤
Shark scientist in Malta chiming in - having met the fisherman (Alfred Cutajar) who caught the specimen in 1987 nearly every week doing data collection down in the central fish market (first of all, lovely guy, did not mean to catch the shark at all, was a perfect example of accidental bycatch), the animal was supposedly measured at 23ft 5 inches, which truth be told I find somewhat hard to believe even if various unpublished images that I've been shown do show the shark to be colossal. The whole event has reached near mythical status on the island so finding reliable information is incredibly difficult, especially as the jaws themselves seemed to have disappeared into the ether. I simply cannot find anyone who knows where they ended up. Finding them could help verify the approx size, especially in comparison to the Ledge Point Shark in this vid. I'm sad to say though that white sharks have basically disappeared from the Maltese waters, and we haven't had a reliable or verified sighting of one in a long time, although this could refer to any large shark around the archipelago, but that could be a representation on the wider Med than just here. Keep up the vids though, we love them down at the lab!
The Malta shark's alleged length was just an exaggerated estimate, despite the claim that it had been measured. It was nowhere near 23' 5." I would guess that 18' is more likely. Its Dried Upper Jaw Perimeter was 112 cm. The Ledge Point shark's DUJP was 130 cm. The Prince Edward Island shark's DUJP was 143 cm.
Definitely not a scientist speaking here, but watching lots of shark videos, they seem to disappear from an area either because the area's seals have disappeared, or there are Orcas who specialize in hunting Great Whites in the area- they bolt. There's a really interesting video of Orca vs. Great White which took place at Farallon Islands off coast of San Fransisco. All these people witnessed the Orca killing a big Great white- said he even held it in his mouth like a dog would a bird, showing off his catch to the humans. Anyways, after that incident, all the Great Whites disappeared from the Farallons for the rest of the year- and it is usually Shark central during Seal Mating season. th-cam.com/video/3uBFUumm3Dk/w-d-xo.html - That's the edited down version of a much longer program. Gives you a good idea of incident, however longer version gets into what actually happened and how- tonic immobility...etc. Most fascinating part for me was that ALL Great Whites bugged out of area for rest of year. Like dying shark either released a hormone other sharks could detect or perhaps the other sharks actually saw Orcas and split. But survival instincts incredible.
@@scottmierzwiak7369 Where'd you get those stats from, would be a helpful resource as everything here on the island is made up of rumour and hearsay!
@@DatRockingBassist I belong to a messenger shark enthusiast group, we've compiled a lot of data from various sources (body lengths, DUJP, body weight, all types of information) for decades. My longtime friend, You Hung Lin, compiled much of the DUJP data from the scientific literature. One of the sources that he mentioned for the Malta shark's DUJP was Mollet et al, 1996. Henry Mollet has his own shark website, he usually replies to emails also.
@@DatRockingBassist I belong to a messenger group of longtime shark enthusiasts, we've compiled a lot of data from various sources for decades. Some of it is from scientific literature, some of it is from personal communication with experts. The DUJP data for the Malta shark came from Mollet et al, 1996. Henry Mollet has a shark website. Just google his name and "shark," and you can find it. I've tried to share it here, but the youtube community standards won't allow it. Here is a list of DUJP data that was compiled by the group:
DUJP Data:
MALTA- 112cm (Mollet)
Bunbury- 1128mm (Gordon Hubbell)
Port Fairy- 118cm
Catalina Island (The Bone Clone jaw) DUJP is 118cm according to Andrew Sprott who once owned a set.
Bondee's DUJP was 1225.25mm and DLJP was 1026.3mm (Simon DeMarchi)
KANGA's DUJP is 125cm (in Mollet's paper) and 124cm measured by Simon DeMarchi.
Anacapa 1985- 127cm (Gordon Hubbell)
Ledge Point- 130cm (Gordon Hubbell)
Gansbaai, S. Africa 1987- 137.5cm
PEI - 143cm* (Gordon Hubbell)
*1983 Alberton, Prince Edward Island, this jaw was rebuilt by Gordon Hubbell.
For the size you could argue the same for tiger sharks...
Its always debated as of which one is larger
The longest reliably measured tiger shark that I've tracked down measured 15.' It was measured by Hawaiian tiger shark expert, Carl Meyer. The longest IGFA (sport fishing) tiger sharks are in the 13 to 14 foot range. Only two weighed around 1700 pounds. The largest white sharks exceed 5000 pounds and measure over 19 feet in length.
Debated by who?
I wish you'd also include their sizes in meters. You usually provide info in the metric system in your other videos.
I'd say size doesn't matter after they start attacking humans, once they get that big, they're big enough. The laser measurement method at least doesn't rely on the shark being dead on the ground, which is nice. What's really amazing is how much they gain in weight after they get a certain length.
keep up the good work
Could you please include centimeters/meters for all measurements you show in your videos? noone outside the US is using ft 😭
So is jaw size not a reliable method of measuring a shark? Mostly the ring of teeth survives, right? Is there no real correlation between width of the teeth 'rings' (I don't know what the correct term is) and length of the shark?
I mean I guess there isn't or shark scientists would already use that, lol.
What about the Great White Shark that killed Surfer Lewis Boren in 1981?
The scientist estimated that shark about 21 to 23 feet long by measuring the chunk missing out of Lewis and his one board ?
There are huge sharks in that area, those navy divers over at the Farralon islands estimated GW that attacked the one diver at 24 to 25 ft.Wasnt measured but they all agreed it was no less than 24,25 ft.
"Estimated" is the key word dear. Kris is going by factual and properly measured Sharks.
You said it yourself, ESTIMATE which is not a measurement. Could be a small shark with an absurdly big mouth hence why it’s an estimate cause you missing a lot of data
It would be interesting to know how you came to the conclusion of the size of 5.96 meters for the 1983 PEI specimen?
It was an estimate. Only the fork length was actually measured. Gordon Hubbell's estimated TOT was slightly smaller for PEI, at 5.944 m.
Awesome fish 🐟
What about the 2 great whites Vic Hislop caught in Sth Australia back in 1987. One was over 20ft the other 19ft.
Vic's white sharks were never verified by experts. Based on the photographic evidence, his largest catch doesn't appear to be quite as long as claimed. I would guess that it was likely not longer than the 1956 Sete, France shark. Vic had a large hammerhead once, years ago. He claimed that it measured 17' in length. This hammerhead was later put on display, at Underwater World, in Mooloolaba, and its actual length turned out to be 14' 5.2."
@@scottmierzwiak7369 yes they were. Even video footage was taken of the capture and released on vhs. That's how I know. The 19ft shark was at Harvey Bay Shark Show and the other one was taken to Cairns, later being sold to China. The homemade documentary is called Shark Hunter.
@@calsurf72 I've read of a lot of different lengths over the years attributed to Vic's largest catch. One stated that it was over 22 feet. A couple of other given lengths were 20' 8" and 20' 3." These figures are all estimates. I've seen a lot of the photos and video footage from his largest catch. My impression was that while it was certainly a very heavy shark, it was probably not as long as the 1956 Sete shark, which measured 19' 1.5" with its caudal fin depressed. The Sete shark measured 7' 2.6" from nose to first dorsal fin (pre first dorsal). Regarding Vic's other (smaller) shark, which was on display at Hervey Bay at the Shark Show exhibit, it was later listed for sale and according to the article that reported the sale, the shark measured 5 meters. I am guessing that the scientist's names probably weren't revealed in the documentary (who have allegedly verified the lengths of these sharks?) Many scientists report their findings in the scientific literature. A white shark of this size would almost certainly have been recorded in a scientific paper. Is there a scientific paper that confirms this?
So ..does a professional who uses a tape measure that the government paid $5,000 for, more trustworthy than the same tape measure that a fisherman paid $15 for?
Scientists are trained how in to take accurate measurements. Fishermen are not. Mistakes can be made. For example, if you place a tape measure over the curve of the shark's body, this could add extra inches to a length measurement. Scientists know not to do this. Scientists are trained to take many detailed measurements. Look up the 1956 Sete, France shark online. There's a paper that was written about this shark years ago, and in this paper, you can find the complete morphometric measurements of this shark.
No, of course not. It's just pure BS. I rather trust Vic Hislop than any so called "scientist" because Hislop had more time on the sea than those pencil pushers.
Where on the tail do you measure. There would be specific measurements that a professional would take.
@@fiverx2159 Fishermen ARE The professionals. Not the other way around.
@@CycoSven69 Google the morphometric measurements of the 1956 Sete shark. The Sete shark has a cast model in a museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. You will see how thoroughly and accurately that trained experts measure sharks.
Its absolutely sickening seeing all these beautiful sharks killed.
Disgusting with people smiling in the pictures too. Very disturbing.