Tzitzimitl great white shark
Great White Shark diving in Guadalupe
Shark Facts:
Tzitzimitl shark profile
Named after the Aztec goddess, meaning “Air Demon”, Tzitzimitl is a monstrous sized female with a missing upper caudal fin and massive girth. Weighing up to 2 tons with the width of between 6 - 8ft, she is a gigantic shark.
Like many of the other mature females, it is theorized that Tzitzimitl returns to Guadalupe every two years to get pregnant and stock up on high energy food sources such as the Californian elephant seals found here. Judging from her scars and missing top half of her caudal fin, courtship with this shark could be described as turbulent to say the least.
This enormous female does not seem to play well with others. On one occasion we where diving in the submersible cage and perhaps curious as to what we where, she began circling us over and over. When a smaller shark attempted to rise up from the deep she would instantly nose dive and force the smaller shark to retreat back down before returning to our cage. She did this time and time again as if saying “this is mine, keep your distance”. A fascinating behaviour to observe and definitely not a shark you would want to mess with.
Meet more Great White Shark Profiles
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Heracles
14 foot Male shark
Covered in freckles and spots, Heracles is unmistakable. In recent years, this shark has endeared himself to our team with his very curious nature. What he lacks in girth he makes up for in length with his long and slender body.
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Scarboard
18 foot Female shark
Scarboard is a colossal 18ft female great white shark. Originally named after the huge scars that where down her right side, these days her whole body is completely covered in wounds and injuries making her look almost prehistoric!
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Gianna
15 foot Female shark
Gianna is an impressive 15ft mature female with a cautious and calm demeanour. She is also one of our tagged sharks and her data has revealed that she migrates vast distances as well as diving to extreme depths along the way.