Environment

Live dissection of great white shark today

by Amy Judd | January 6, 2009 at 04:20 pm

1271 views | 10 Recommendations | 7 comments

For the first time ever, a live dissection of a great white shark happened on webcam today on in front of 1,500 people in Auckland New Zealand.

The young female shark weighed 300 kg and viewers got a first hand look at her muscular lining, huge liver, and stomach contents. Her stomach contained a fish hook, some digested fish skull, and tapeworm.

But was this a scientific excercise or a publicity stunt?

Previously

For the first time ever, a great white shark will be dissected live on video and beamed around the world for anyone to watch, so that scientists and anyone can learn a little more about the diet of this predator of the deep.

Remember that scene in Jaws when Richard Dreyfuss cuts open the shark and finds a car license plate and a crushed tin? Well, now scientists will get their first look inside a real great white.

The live dissection will take place this Thursday January 8th at an amphitheatre outside Auckland, New Zealand. It will be streamed on the Auckland Museum website and is estimated to be watched by about 1,000 people live and millions more online.

Scientists are hoping the this will allow people to learn more about one of the most feared animals in the whole ocean. They will look at stomach content and the rest of the internal organs.

Although great white sharks are known to be man-eaters – with attacks taking place off Australia – little is known about their diet. Scientists are expecting to find remnants of birds, fish and marine mammals like seals.

The shark, an adolescent female which measures 10ft and weighs 660 pounds, was accidentally caught by a local fisherman after it had become entangled in a gill net in Auckland's Kaipara Harbour on Monday last week.

The museum will keep the jaws for display after the dissection is over.

1 See all footage | View Slideshow

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Uwe Paschen

at 16:22 on January 6th, 2009

Interesting and a positive application of the web as a teaching tool.

matte

at 16:27 on January 6th, 2009

I doubt they will find anything too unusual - unlike tiger sharks which commonly eat odd things.

altrugon

at 10:32 on January 8th, 2009

This is great, let's going to kill another shark!

Wake up people, sharks are an endangered specie and their population has been reduce by 80%... repeat 80% in the last few years because the stupid shark fin soup.

There is a huge mafia behind all this captures of course, and the business has became more profitable than drugs because the risks are practically null.

If you don't know anything about this you can read this article, watch the Sharkwater movie, or visit the Sharkwater site.

Amy Judd

at 10:55 on January 8th, 2009

In defense of this situation however, this shark died accidentially; they didn't kill it for this purpose.

Yuliya Talmazan

at 11:11 on January 8th, 2009

But is not it a live dissection? I thought it meant they would cut the shark when it is still alive, which would be atrocious and very cruel, if they actually did it.

Amy Judd

at 11:47 on January 8th, 2009

No, a dissection is of something that is dead - a vivisection is the cutting open of something that is still alive. Thankfully this shark was dead, although I doubt it had a peaceful death...