--- title: ‘Mystery Sea Monster’ Devoured Great White Shark, Researchers Say description: Australian researchers are on the hunt for a large animal that ate a great white shark. canonical: https://time.com/2858459/researchers-search-for-mystery-sea-monster-that-devoured-great-white-shark/ author: Jack Linshi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-11T16:30:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T08:57:28.435Z og:title: Researchers Search for ‘Mystery Sea Monster’ That Devoured Great White Shark og:description: Scientists are baffled by what exactly it was that consumed a 9-foot great white og:url: https://time.com/2858459/researchers-search-for-mystery-sea-monster-that-devoured-great-white-shark/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f543e3dba77dab2/6986889fadae446dbd5424f5/a0049-000043.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5027 og:image:height: 2828 og:image:alt: a0049-000043 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Researchers Search for ‘Mystery Sea Monster’ That Devoured Great White Shark twitter:description: Scientists are baffled by what exactly it was that consumed a 9-foot great white twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f543e3dba77dab2/6986889fadae446dbd5424f5/a0049-000043.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Researchers Search for ‘Mystery Sea Monster’ That Devoured Great White Shark > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=6a07f98e-c1c0-4df5-baea-741e2803ff65&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Something Ate This Shark, But What [Watch (HLS stream): Something Ate This Shark, But What](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/kcYtEzVF.m3u8) (2:54)  _Published 2014-06-11. Something Ate This Shark, But What_  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Jun 11, 2014 4:30 PM UTC  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Jun 11, 2014 4:30 PM UTC Shark attacks suddenly seem less scary. When a 9 ft. long great white shark’s tracker washed up on a beach, scientists found that the data indicated that the shark underwent a 30-degree spike and a rapid 1,900 ft. dive. The temperature increase and underwater descent indicate that the shark had entered a larger animal’s digestive tract. “When I was first told about the data that came back from the tag that was on the shark, I was absolutely blown away,” said filmmaker David Riggs in the Smithsonian’s _Hunt for the Super Predator_, which documents Australia’s first large scale great white tagging project. “What could kill a 3 m. great white?” The documentary, which airs in the U.S. on June 25, chronicles the researchers’ attempt to understand what exactly happened to Alpha, the unlucky shark who had “a real swagger,” Riggs recalled. ## Transcript Filmmaker Dave Riggs has been contracted to document Australia's first large great white shark tagging project. The teams' aim was to tag adult great white sharks, so they could study their patterns of movement along Australia's coast. I remember looking at one of them thinking, wow, she's just a magnificent looking animal. She was only three meters long. Didn't have a mark on her. When she first came in, she came in with a real swagger, like a real confident, bold move and then just pushed up against the dingy and gave us that opportunity to tag her. And he placed his tag perfectly. Code named, Shark Alpha, the healthy female left the scene without any sign of distress. Four months later, Shark Alpha's tag was found by a beachcomber. The device washed ashore two and a half miles from where it was attached to the shark. It's data revealed an incredible story. When I was first told about the data that came back from the tag that was on the shark, I was absolutely blown away. At 4: 00 am on Christmas Eve, the shark suddenly plunged at high speed straight down the edge of the Continental Shelf. It showed this profile going down the shelf to 580 meters and then a huge temperature change. Within seconds, the shark tag recorded a dramatic temperature shift from 46 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit. A temperature that could only be achieved inside the belly of another living animal. Question that not only came to my mind, but everyone's mind who is involved was, what did that? It was obviously eaten. What's going to eat a shark that big? What could kill a three meter Great White? The tag recorded 78 degrees for eight days moving between the surface and a depth of 330 feet before it was released. There was no doubt the seemingly indomitable Shark Alpha had been attacked and eaten by a super predator of the deep. 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