INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Rare Great White Shark Nursery Found Off Western Australia

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 06:53 PST, Mar 18, 2016

A diver recently captured an image of a juvenile great white shark in the water off Western Australia, lending credence to the theory that a nursery ground for the young animals lies somewhere close by.

Marc Payne, of Esperance, is an accomplished abalone diver, with a 25-year track record. Recently, he photographed a baby great white shark at an undisclosed site in the Recherche Archipelago, recording the 1.4-meter animal as it playfully circled his boat. As the West Australian notes, the shark isn’t the first that he has managed to document in the area. In the past, Payne has been able to film 12 great white sharks simply by lowering his camera into the water.

The shark that Payne photographed in this instance is thought to be roughly a month old, based on physical characteristics and its size. The animal’s youth, combined with the fact that none of the sharks recorded by Payne have been documented elsewhere, has led him and others to believe that very near to his secret spot lies a pupping and nursery ground for young white sharks.

Payne noted the behavior of the juvenile shark when it approached his boat, suggesting that the animal was exploring its surroundings.

“It had a piece of kelp in its mouth and it seemed to be playing around a bit, which was pretty special to see. Being so young, it was just looking around and didn’t know what to do. It was all a learning process for it. It just swam around the boat for three or four minutes, had a look and wandered off.”

Although the exact spot where the nursery is located remains unknown, Payne said that he was revealing its existence publicly because others are now aware of it, and he wishes the habitat to be protected. Citing certain tagging practices, Payne asserted that he doesn’t want to see the sharks hooked and dragged to a boat in an attempt to document them when less invasive techniques exist. He specifically pointed to technology that can be clamped to the shark’s fin, and then released later on without harming the animal.

The nursery is just the most recent to make headlines this year after a sand tiger shark pupping ground was discovered near Long Island in January. According to the Washington Post, that area was uncovered by researchers who noted sharks constantly returning to the same spots, showing “site fidelity.” The sand tiger sharks found in that nursery were as old as five years in some cases.

While the white shark nursery isn’t the first to be documented worldwide, Payne noted that it did exhibit unique potential, namely because it exists as a somewhat pristine habitat for the young predators.

“This is one of the last locations where great whites have not been impacted by humans and there is a good opportunity to compare data from other locations.”

Previously, white shark nurseries have been uncovered in regions as disparate as New York, South Africa, and New Zealand. Last year, 11 great white sharks were spotted in a single day inside a New Zealand harbor, as the Inquisitr previously reported, giving rise to speculation that a nursery could be located close by.

Recently, authorities in Western Australia extended permissions for some scientists to tag sharks off the state’s southern coast in hopes of identifying a breeding ground. Anecdotal evidence has suggested that a great white shark nursery may exist near the area of the Western Bight, yet the location is not definitively known at this time.

[Image via Elias Levy – Own Work | Flickr | Cropped and Resized | CC BY 2.0]

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