---
title: "Mystery Solved: 9-Foot Great White Eaten by a Bigger Great White"
description: "Producers and scientists involved in the documentary The Search for the Ocean's Super Predator (which has been repackaged by the Smithsonian Channel and titled: Hunt for the Super Predator) have solved the 11-year-old mystery of what killed an ate a 9 foot great white shark off an Australian beach more than a decade ago. The answer? Another great white shark. One almost twice as big."
date: "2014-06-09"
modified: "2021-04-20"
authors:
- name: "Gayne C. Young"
link: "https://www.outdoorlife.com/authors/gayne-c-young/"
url: "https://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/newshound/2014/06/mystery-solved-9-foot-great-white-eaten-bigger-great-white/"
categories:
- "Fishing"
- "Saltwater Fishing"
---
# Mystery Solved: 9-Foot Great White Eaten by a Bigger Great White
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Producers and scientists involved in the documentary The Search for the Ocean's Super Predator (which has been repackaged by the [Smithsonian Channel]() and titled: Hunt for the Super Predator) have solved the 11-year-old mystery of what killed an ate a 9 foot great white shark off an Australian beach more than a decade ago.
The answer?
Another great white shark.
One almost twice as big.
The story began 11 years ago when a tagged shark known as "shark alpha" went missing in a sudden temperature change while swimming at a depth of 1,900. The shark's monitor went from 46 degrees Fahrenheit to 78 degrees in a matter of seconds. The only explanation is that "shark alpha" went inside another animal.
But what is capable of killing and devouring a 9 foot apex predator?
A cannibalistic great white measuring 16 feet and weighing more than 2 tons, that's what.
Scientists say that the monster shark matched the smaller sharks temperature and could easily match its speed and trajectory.
Theories as to why a great white would be cannibal range from it was a territorial dispute to a hunger induced attack.
It's a tough, shark eat shark world down there for sure.