Deep Blue is the name given to a massive great white shark that was caught on camera off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, in 2013.
Estimated to be around 50 years old, with a projected length of 20 ft and a height of 8 ft, Deep Blue is often said to be the largest great white shark on record.
In fact, if you ask the average person what the biggest shark is, they’ll probably point you to Deep Blue.
But is Deep Blue really the largest great white shark ever?
Deep Blue: The Giant Great White Shark
When Was Deep Blue Discovered?
Deep Blue was initially discovered in the late 1990s by Michael Domeier and his team.
Domeier is the president of the Marine Conservation Science Institute and has studied great white sharks off the coast of Mexico’s Guadalupe Island (where Deep Blue was found) for many years.
He notes that she was big in the ’90s and called her an “old [and] beautiful shark”.
However, he also notes that she’s “probably” not the biggest great white shark in the sea.
Is Deep Blue The Biggest White Shark In The World?
According to Domeier, Deep Blue is not the biggest white shark in the world.
In fact, he says that he has “personally seen two massive sharks” that are bigger than Deep Blue, one at The Farallon Islands off of San Francisco, California and one at Point Conception in Santa Barbara County, California.
Mauricio Hoyos Padilla, a marine biologist who was part of the team that filmed Deep Blue in 2013, said that she was the largest great white shark that he had ever seen.
His cameraman seems to have agreed.
However, as noted above, other great white shark experts have argued that there are many bigger specimens out there.
Although Deep Blue is definitely a massive great white shark, and probably one of the biggest in recent history, she might not be the biggest of them all.
How Big Is Deep Blue & Is She Still Alive?
Yes, Deep Blue is still alive and swimming and has not been laid out and measured, so there’s no way of knowing for sure how big she is.
Was Deep Blue Pregnant?
Deep Blue is a female shark and at the time that she was filmed off the coast of Guadalupe island, she was believed to have been pregnant.
Generally, female great white sharks are much bigger than their male counterparts, and Deep Blue also looked bloated (aka, pregnant).
What Is The Biggest Shark In The World?
The great white shark is not the biggest shark in the sea.
That honor goes to the whale shark, which can grow up to 40 feet in length.
If the estimated measurements are correct, Deep Blue is roughly half that size.
Still, when you consider the sheer size and weight, along with the razor-sharp teeth, it’s fair to say that there’s something much more impressive about giant great white sharks.
The Megalodon – The Biggest Shark In History
The largest sharks in history are known as megalodons and are thought to have been up to 60 feet in length, roughly three times the size of Deep Blue.
Some have even argued that they would have been up to 82 feet in length, and even the quoted mean average of 33 feet is impressive.
Megalodon females may have weighed up to 143,000 pounds and had teeth that were three times the size of great white shark teeth.
