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.
