Video shows 2 enormous great white sharks feasting on a dead humpback whale off Cape Cod
Captain John Boats via Facebook
- A video shows two great white sharks chomping down at a humpback whale in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
- One of the giant predators was a very large speciemen, more than than 17 feet long.
- Dead whales are a "really easy" food source for great white sharks, researchers say.
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Two great white sharks were captured on video feasting on a dead humpback whale off Cape Cod, Massachusetts last week.
The footage was shared on Captain John Boats' Facebook page, which is a tour company in NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
Tourists on the boat tour were left astonished after finding the two hungry sharks. One was estimated to be more than 17 feet long, according to the Facebook post.
"It was the first time I had ever seen this happen," said John Goggin, of Captain John Boats, according to The Boston Herald. "People on board were pretty excited. There was a lot of yelling, 'Oh my God! Wow!'"
Watch the natural history moment below:
The event also proved helpful to researchers who were able to tag some of the sharks for tracking. Eight sharks over a two-day period were seen feeding on the dead whale.
"While it is sad to learn that an individual has died, documenting these events is essential for long-term population studies," The Center for Coastal Studies wrote on Facebook.
The whale was known to researchers, although it was unclear how it died. It was a one-year-old calf, reported Live Science.
"A dead whale is a lot of really easy food for great white sharks," said Peter Corkeron, who leads the whale research team at the New England Aquarium, according to the Herald. "A dead whale is like the biggest smorgasbord a shark could ever dream of."
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