Stories1 min(s) read
Published 15:57 10 Oct 2020 GMT
A team of scientists has found a gigantic great white shark in the waters off Nova Scotia in Canada, according to CNN.
It weighs a staggering 3,541lbs and measures 17 feet 2 inches in length.
The researchers are from OCEARCH, an NGO that is tagging and sampling white sharks. They referred to the 50-year-old female shark as the "Queen of the Ocean", and have since named her Nukumi.
Related - This police officer saved a boy from a shark:
[[jwplayerwidget||https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/nc3TLEdJ-sKUnNGKf.mp4||nc3TLEdJ]]
Per CNN, OCEARCH specializes in ocean data collection. They have tagged and collected samples from hundreds of animals in the ocean.
"We named her 'Nukumi', pronounced noo-goo-mee, for the legendary wise old grandmother figure of the Native American Mi'kmaq people," Ocearch wrote in a post on Facebook.
[[facebookwidget||https://www.facebook.com/OCEARCH/posts/10163993870455167]]
The post reads:
"Meet 3,541 pound mature female white shark Nukumi. We named her "Nukumi", pronounced noo-goo-mee, for the legendary wise old grandmother figure of the Native American Mi'kmaq people. A culture that has deep roots in Canadian Maritime provinces (particularly #NovaScotia).
"With the new data we've collected, this matriarch will share her #wisdom with us for years to come. She will continue to help balance fish stocks in the surrounding waters, and we look forward to learning more from this wise guardian of our ocean's eco-system.
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/OCEARCH/status/1312536896434659329]]
"Nukumi is the sixth #greatwhiteshark sampled during #ExpeditionNovaScotia At 17 feet 2 inches long, she is the largest #shark we have sampled in the Northwest Atlantic #whiteshark study to date. She will help our collaborating science team with 21 research projects."
Their current expedition has been running for 27 days as of Monday, and so far Nukumi has been the largest of eight great whites that scientists have sampled.
The organization has also uploaded a video showing Nukumi lying on a platform attached to the research vessel.
[[facebookwidget||https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=965072050628797]]
As reported by CNN, OCEARCH is trying to use the data they collect to learn more about migration patterns and obscure details about the way that sharks live.
Per the publication, in October of 2019, OCEARCH caught and tagged a male shark off Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. They subsequently named him Ironbound.
By the end of December that year, his tracker indicated that he had traveled 1,473 miles down the US East Coast to Key Biscayne, near Miami.
