--- 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: 2026-04-13T07:10:39.234Z 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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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.  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Jun 11, 2014 4:30 PM UTC  Two Sharks Near Surface Two Sharks Near Surface Carlos Eyles—Getty Images  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. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2858459/researchers-search-for-mystery-sea-monster-that-devoured-great-white-shark/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2858459/researchers-search-for-mystery-sea-monster-that-devoured-great-white-shark/"},"headline":"Researchers Search for ‘Mystery Sea Monster’ That Devoured Great White Shark","datePublished":"2014-06-11T16:30:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:10:39.234Z","description":"Scientists are baffled by what exactly it was that consumed a 9-foot great white","url":"https://time.com/2858459/researchers-search-for-mystery-sea-monster-that-devoured-great-white-shark/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Australia","animals","shark attack"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f543e3dba77dab2/6986889fadae446dbd5424f5/a0049-000043.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f543e3dba77dab2/6986889fadae446dbd5424f5/a0049-000043.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"a0049-000043","caption":"a0049-000043","creditText":"Carlos Eyles—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2858459/researchers-search-for-mystery-sea-monster-that-devoured-great-white-shark/","name":"Researchers Search for ‘Mystery Sea Monster’ That Devoured Great White Shark"}}]}] ```