A newborn great white shark has been spotted in the wild for the first time, experts believe.
The baby shark was spotted in waters off Santa Barbara in southern California last July by wildlife filmmaker, Carlos Gauna, and biology doctoral student, Phillip Sternes. The sighting of the vulnerable species captured by a drone that Mr Gauna was operating.
“In my opinion, this one was likely hours, maybe one day old at most,” Mr Sternes said, in a statement.
“We enlarged the images, put them in slow motion, and realized the white layer was being shed from the body as it was swimming. I believe it was a newborn white shark shedding its embryonic layer.”
In peer-reviewed findings, published on Monday, the experts said that the shark was either a newborn, or an older shark with “an unknown skin disorder resulting in shedding”.
However, the authors leaned towards the shark being a newborn due to the presence of large and likely pregnant great whites in the area, along with the creature’s shape and size.