Divers in Hawaii have snapped breathtaking images of the largest great white shark ever recorded, a behemoth called “Deep Blue” that is 21 feet long and more than 5,000 pounds.
The shark was spotted on Sunday by divers Mark Mohler and Kimberly Jeffries, who dived into the water to swim alongside the gigantic shark and take pictures of it. As the Daily Mail reported, Deep Blue had been spotted 20 years ago in Mexico and is now believed to be 50-years-old. She was identified by a tag placed during the sighting in Mexico, and her identity was verified through the great white shark authority.
When the divers found the enormous shark, she was feeding on a dead sperm whale about nine miles from the coast of the island of Oahu. They suspect that she traveled thousands of miles to Hawaii for an “all-you-can-eat vacation” and was surrounded by tiger sharks as she feasted on the dead whale.
“My first reaction was just disbelief,” Mark Mohler told For The Win Outdoors . “She followed three tiger sharks in toward the whale carcass, and her sheer size made them look like barracudas.”
Mohler said it was amazing to be able to swim alongside what could be the largest great white shark ever to live.
“After I spent some time with her, and then again when we confirmed her identity as Deep Blue, it was an incredible feeling of euphoria,” Mohler said. “Everyone was in awe when we saw her. It was both disbelief and euphoria. Her size was absolutely incredible.”
As the report noted, Deep Blue gained worldwide fame after being featured on the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week for her record-breaking size. Experts said it is not uncommon for sharks to travel great distances, normally traveling during the late fall or early winter and reaching as far as Hawaii, though they are rarely actually spotted while in Hawaii.
A massive shark known as “Deep Blue” was seen cruising in Hawaii waters https://t.co/HZhDAvVzcJ #HNN
— Hawaii News Now (@HawaiiNewsNow) January 16, 2019
A huge great white shark called Deep Blue, one of the largest ever recorded, has been spotted by divers off the Hawaiian island of Oahu https://t.co/UHTFW7EHmc
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) January 17, 2019
Deep Blue has been spotted before, including a sighting in 2015 by a Mexico-based scientist near the Guadalupe Islands in Mexico. That was close to where the giant shark had first been seen two decades ago.
The pictures that Mohler posted of Deep Blue have gotten viral attention online, with many sharing the breathtaking images of the great white shark on social media. News outlets across the world also picked up on the story, sharing Mohler’s account of swimming alongside Deep Blue after her journey of thousands of miles.