Carlos Gauna and Phillip Sternes filmed the footage in Santa Barbara, CA. January 29, 2024, 8:55 PM ET• 5 min readResearchers have taken a significant step forward in understanding one of the ocean’s most formidable predators. The world’s first-ever footage of a newborn great white shark has been released, and the 5-foot-long, white pup represents a groundbreaking discovery. In July 2023, wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna and UC Riverside biology doctoral student Phillip Sternes were using drone cameras to survey the waters in Santa Barbara on California’s central coast when they came across what is believed to be a newborn great white shark covered in a “milky” white substance. Gauna explained that he had often filmed this area in Santa Barbara because he had seen “really large, adult-sized and possibly pregnant” sharks there. He noticed that the sharks would appear within a three to four-week window, so he decided to spend his time observing the area “from sunrise to sunset” in the hope of witnessing a newborn great white shark. On that particular day, after eight to nine hours of filming, they saw a large shark disappear into the water, and what emerged was a “beautiful, little, literally white, shark.” Sternes described his excitement, saying, “I fell out of my seat in excitement as it was unlike anything I had ever seen before.” Confirming Sternes’ reaction, Gauna added, “He did, he literally fell out of his chair. I think he shed a tear. I was focused on flying but it was really an incredible moment.” The birthing location of great white sharks has long been a mystery to researchers because wild, newborn great whites have never been seen alive. “Where white sharks actually give birth to their pups remains one of the ocean’s great mysteries,” said Tobey Curtis, a shark scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Very young white sharks have been observed and studied in a few places, including off southern California and Long Island, New York, but we still don’t know precisely where they are born.” “We think we have a piece to the puzzle,” Sternes said regarding his findings in Santa Barbara. “Research in the 80s suggested this could be a birthing location. If what we saw was a newborn, then it supports that proposition.” Sternes believes the milky white substance surrounding the newborn shark could be the pup shedding its embryonic layer. Gregory B. Skomal, Ph.D., senior fisheries scientist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, commented, “We can probably assume — if that milky white coating is a result of being in the uterus recently — that this shark was born within hours.” “I think it’s a really fascinating observation. There’s so much mystery when it comes to white shark reproductive biology,” Skomal continued. “Every little bit we learn about these animals is quite fascinating.” Great white sharks are listed as “vulnerable” worldwide and “critically endangered” in Europe on the IUCN Red List. Sternes emphasized the importance of lawmakers protecting the waters where great white sharks are giving birth. “It’s a critical species for a healthy marine ecosystem, we have seen the loss of white sharks to other areas in the world have cascading effects on the ecosystem.”
