shark nova scotia
Nukumi is the largest great white shark the US that has been found to date.
Chris Ross / Ocearch
  • A great white shark believed to be around 50 years old and the largest of its kind discovered in the Northwest Atlantic, has been discovered by a team of researchers off the coast of Nova Scotia.
  • The female shark measures more than 17 feet long and weighs around 3,500 pounds.
  • The shark has been named Nukumbi, after “a legendary wise grandmother figure” from the Native American Mi’kmaq people, researchers from the non-profit research organization OSEARCH said in a Facebook post.
  • “When you look at all the healed-over scars and blotches and things that are on her skin, you’re really looking at the story of her life, and it makes you feel really insignificant,” expedition leader Chris Fischer said.
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A near 2-ton great white shark dubbed a “true matriarch of the ocean” has been captured by a team of researchers off the coast of Nova Scotia. 

The female shark is the largest of its kind found in the Northwest Atlantic, they believe. She measured more than 17 feet long (5 meters) and weighing around 3,500 pounds (1,600 kg).

In a recent video posted on Facebook, marine biologists from the non-profit research organization OSEARCH dubbed the giant  shark the “Queen of the ocean.”

“She’s probably 50-years-old and certainly her first litters of pups she would have been having 30 years ago are also making babies. [It’s] really humbling to stand next to a large animal like that,” OCEARCH expedition leader Chris Fischer said in the video.

The shark has likely reproduced around 15 times in her life, Fischer said in another video posted on OCEARCH’s Facebook page. This means she could have had as many as 100 offspring in her lifetime and is likely already a grandmother.

shark nova scotia
Nukumi is the largest great white shark the US that has been found to date.
Chris Ross / Ocearch

The researchers have named the shark Nukumi, after "a legendary wise grandmother figure" from the Native American Mi'kmaq people, whose ancestral lands include Nova Scotia, according to the Facebook post.

"When you look at all the healed-over scars and blotches and things that are on her skin, you're really looking at the story of her life, and it makes you feel really insignificant," Fischer said in the video. "She would be a proper, true matriarch of the ocean, a grandmother of sharks."

The team of scientists has been on a month-long expedition near Nova Scotia to tag great white sharks and take cell and blood samples to better understand the population's migration patterns through the North Atlantic.

They have already tagged nine female great white sharks, according to NBC News.

Watch the video of how they captured and sampled Nukumi below:

 

 

Sharks are among the oldest living animals in the world, with the great white species living up to 70 years old, according to Live Science. Female great white sharks can be pregnant with as many as 14 pups.

Once shark pups are born, they immediately leave their mothers to hunt for food. 

Read the original article on Insider