We know a lot about ocean newborns. Baby corals billow beneath the waves before attaching to something solid; baby comb jellies burst into being in the open ocean; and baby turtles wriggle their way through the sandy shores. But there’s one ocean creature whose birthplace is strangely secretive, and that’s the great white shark.
For decades, scientists struggled to determine where great white sharks gave birth. But in July 2023, two shark specialists — a filmmaker and a biologist searching for sharks off the coast of central California — captured what they describe as the world’s first footage of a wild great white newborn. In an article published in Environmental Biology of Fishes, the footage could clarify where great whites are born, as well as what they look like in their first days — or hours — of life.
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