Great White Shark Damage-Guadalupe Island

Yesterday one of our shark divers Gene Williams from our 2007 expeditions sent over some interesting video he shot. What made his footage unique is a shark called "Lucy". This female, first spotted at the island back in 2003 and again in 2004 was a healthy animal until her disappearance in 2005 and again in 2006. Lucy reappeared in 2007 with some extreme damage to her tail as seen in this video.

Damage like this happens from a variety of sources in the white sharks world-but more often than not it happens from other white sharks. Lucy's fate was unknown until this season 2008 when she reappeared back at the island. Apparently the damage she sustained to her tail did not slow down her migration to the Shared Offshore Feeding Area known as SOFA:

White Shark Cafe-SOFA-White Shark Cafe...

After what has seemed like a decade of tagging and tracking the Marine Conservation Science Institute has published data from it's multi-year white shark study at Isla Guadalupe.

Pete Thomas from the L.A Times got the scoop.

As a side note the battle between TOPP's and the Marine Conservation Science Institute for the naming rights to the mysterious terminus point these animals gather at each season has heated up with MCSI's addition "SOFA" (Shared Offshore Foraging Area).

We'll let you decide which name will stick:

1. MCSI-"SOFA"

2. TOPP-"White Shark Cafe"

Editors Note: We like both.