Caught on camera: ‘Largest’ great white ever filmed in the wild
A 20-foot great white shark known as
You'll definitely need a bigger boat.
The great white shark known as "Deep Blue" is nearly 20 feet long and is thought to be the largest great white ever caught on film.
Shark conservationist Mauricio Hoyos Padilla captured footage of the massive beast nearly three years ago, while doing work for Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" programming. At the time, "Deep Blue" was pregnant.
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In the video above, "Deep Blue" swims up to the cage and a diver pushes the shark as it pokes around before it eventually swims away. Hoyos Padilla captured the incredible footage near Guadalupe Island, off the west coast of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula.
It's estimated that "Deep Blue," who has become so famous it has its own Twitter account, is nearly 50 years old, Discovery found.
According to a 2014 study, great white sharks have an average lifespan of 70 years, though it varies between male and females.
It's likely that Deep Blue became so big simply because of her age, said Gavin Naylor, program director at the Florida Program for Shark Research. "It's an older animal and when you look at the distribution of any animal, it's the larger animals that are older," Naylor told Fox News in an interview.
(Credit: Discovery Channel)
Despite her epic size, orcas, a great white shark's natural predator, wouldn't have any issues taking "Deep Blue" down.
"Orcas are very smart and they work together - they're pack hunters," Naylor added.
Though shark attacks are rare (88 unprovoked attacks and 30 provoked occurred during 2017), they have been in the news recently, something Naylor attributed to population density.
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(Credit: Discovery Channel)
"Shark bites are almost the consequence of density of humans in the water and density of sharks in the water," Naylor said. "It's only in circumstances when people want to be in the water during the summer and sharks are following their feed when an accidental bite happens."
Last week, two children off New York's Long Island were attacked by sharks.
That followed an incident earlier this month when two people were reportedly hospitalized with shark bites causing Fernandina Beach in Florida to close.
Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia
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