The 16-foot great white shark sank its sharp teeth into the whale’s bloated carcass, taking a few bites of her breakfast over the weekend about 14 miles off Dana Point.
It took breaks between chomps, slipping into the ocean’s darkness for about 10 minutes before emerging for more.
• VIDEO: The great white shark feeds on Scarlet the whale’s carcass
Shark tagger Keith Poe of Torrance heard about the death of Scarlet on Thursday by whale-watching boat captains who notified Newport Beach lifeguards so the 55-foot humpback could be towed offshore and away from the beach.
The need to tow was partly because it’s difficult to dispose of whales once they hit land, but also to remove the stench and sight of a decaying whale from the beach setting.
And also because with dead whales come hungry sharks.
Poe and Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab grad student Ryan Logan rushed out to sea Saturday to stay beside Scarlet, hoping her carcass would lure a hungry predator.
And there she was — a pregnant shark of 16 to 18 feet long feasting on Scarlet. The shark’s dorsal was so large Poe and Logan could see the giant fish a mile away.
“She looked like she was here to give birth — she was very large in her girth,” Poe said of the great white. “As she was eating the whale, it was ridiculous how big she got. She was swimming upside-down, just swimming around like she was very happy and satisfied.”
Scarlet was a well-known whale with a rough past. Last year, she was entangled for six weeks before she was able to break free of the line. Being entangled caused health issues, and soon she was covered in lice, a reddish hue earning her the name Scarlet.
She looked to be on the road to recovery, but turned up dead Thursday off Newport Beach.
In her death, it didn’t get easier for the beloved whale.
Entanglement wounds
Poe could still see the entanglement wounds on Scarlet’s pectoral fin.
“You gotta have sympathy for them, but at this point, we’re focusing on the task before us and we were just blown away on the impressive presence of such a large predator,” he said from the Oceanside Harbor Monday after leaving Scarlet in San Diego, where she was coming close to shore. Lifeguards were attempting to pull the whale out to sea.
But there was no time for sorrow, Poe and Logan had a job to do: tag and take samples of the massive shark so researchers could learn more about this elusive species. Poe also shot video of the great white feasting on Scarlet that has been viewed nearly 85,000 times on the internet.
Poe is a construction worker by day, but spends his personal time tagging sharks in tandem with Michael Domeier of the Marine Conservation Institute and Chris Lowe, director of the Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab.
He said he’s no scientist or marine biologist, but has tagged thousands of sharks through the years, mostly Mako sharks off the California coast, and more recently great whites.
He followed Wally, another dead whale off the Los Angeles and Orange County coast, last year, able to get close enough to tag some of the seven great whites tearing apart the whale carcass.
Implanted with tag
He was able to get close enough to Scarlet’s shark on Saturday to put a dart into its side that works as an acoustic tag that will show the shark’s location when it pings one of the many beacons off the coast. Another tag shows its depth and temperature.
The process took about an hour.
“I love the challenge of finding the sharks and putting the tag on them, and seeing the reward the data provides,” he said. “Every adventure is just special to me.”
Poe said the female shark had taken off by Monday, and though Scarlet was attracting blue sharks, no other great whites showed up.
