Apparent Predation by a White Shark 

 Carcharodon carcharias on a Pygmy 

 Sperm Whale Kogia breviceps 



Douglas J. Long 



Department of Integrative Biology and the Museum of Paleontology 

 University of California. Berkeley. California 94720 



The white shark Carcharodon car- 

 charias is one of the largest pred- 

 atory fishes in the world's oceans, 

 and is an important apex predator 

 in coastal waters. The diet of the 

 white shark is quite diverse, includ- 

 ing bony fishes, sharks, sea turtles, 

 birds, and various invertebrates 

 (Compagno 1984). Adults prey fre- 

 quently on marine mammals. In the 

 northeast Pacific, white sharks kill 

 and eat sea lions Zalophus califor- 

 nianus and Eumetopias jubatus, 

 elephant seals Mirounga angusti- 

 rostris, and harbor seals Phoca vitu- 

 Zma(Ainley et al. 1981 and 1985, Le 

 Boeuf et al. 1982, McCosker 1985), 

 and are known to kill sea otters 

 Enhydra lutris, although none have 

 been found in the stomachs of the 

 sharks (Ames and Morejohn 1980). 

 In other oceans, there are several 

 records of white shark predation on 

 cetaceans, specifically on the harbor 

 porpoise Phocoena phocoena and the 

 bottlenose dolphin Tursiops trun- 

 catus (Arnold 1972, Corkeron et al. 

 1987), but the majority of accounts 

 are largely anecdotal. There are few 

 published records of white sharks 

 attacking larger cetaceans, and no 

 published records of white sharks in 

 the northeast Pacific attacking ceta- 

 ceans. Of over 100 white sharks 

 collected in California waters be- 

 tween 1935 and 1984, the ones 

 whose stomach contents were ex- 

 amined were not known to have the 

 remains of any cetacean (Klimley 

 1985). 



However, many authors (Randall 

 1973, Ellis 1975, Carey et al. 1982, 

 Pratt et al. 1982, McCosker 1985) 



observed or documented white sharks 

 scavenging on large whale carcasses 

 off Australia and the eastern United 

 States, and Castro (1983) suggested 

 that whale carcasses may be a pri- 

 mary food resource for these sharks 

 in some areas. To date, there is no 

 documentation of white sharks prey- 

 ing or attempting to prey on a live 

 cetacean other than a porpoise or 

 dolphin. This study reports such 

 predation and provides new infor- 

 mation on the diet and predatory 

 behavior of white sharks. 



On 31 August 1989, a live pyg- 

 my sperm whale Kogia breviceps 

 stranded at Pajaro Dunes beach 

 north of Monterey near Watsonville 

 in northern California. The whale, 

 a 1.8m, 82kg male, was taken to the 

 Long Marine Laboratory at the Uni- 

 versity of California, Santa Cruz, 

 where it was kept alive for several 

 weeks. I was able to examine and 

 photograph the whale 18 days after 

 the initial stranding, and noticed a 

 pair of crescentric rows of gashes 

 and punctures on the dorsal and 

 ventral surfaces of the whale's body 

 anterior to the caudal peduncle (Fig. 

 1). On the dorsal surface, the scars 

 were narrow, parallel grooves that 

 punctured the dermal layer and cut 

 down into the muscles in several 

 spots. The scars cut much deeper on 

 the ventral surface: the anterior 

 scars were deep puncture wounds, 

 and the posterior scars were verti- 

 cally-oriented parallel gashes that 

 penetrated well into the muscle 

 mass. The dorsal surface was pene- 

 trated by 12 teeth and the ventral 

 surface by 9 teeth. 



The shape and orientation of these 

 scars strongly suggests that they 

 were inflicted by a large predator in 

 an attempt to capture the pygmy 

 sperm whale. The size, shape, width, 

 spacing, and orientation of these 

 scars indicated that they were caused 

 by a medium-to-large white shark, 

 and the bite marks on the Kogia are 

 different than those that could be 

 made by other large sharks from 

 northern Californian coastal waters 

 such as the blue shark Prionace 

 glauca, the short fin mako shark 

 Isurus oxyrinchus, or the salmon 

 shark Lamna ditropis. The only 

 other sharks known to prey upon 

 cetaceans are the tiger shark Galeo- 

 cerdo cuvieri and large individuals 

 of the genus Carcharhinus (Com- 

 pagno 1984, Corkeron et al. 1987). 

 These species are almost never seen 

 in northern California waters (Com- 

 pagno 1984), and the bite marks on 

 the Kogia do not appear to have 

 been made by these sharks. These 

 conclusions are supported by com- 

 parisons with similar marks and in- 

 juries attributed to white sharks on 

 pinnipeds and dolphins, and by com- 

 parisons with C. carcharias and 

 jaws of other large predatory sharks 

 examined by the author. Lastly, 

 white sharks are frequently sighted 

 and caught in the Monterey Bay 

 area (Klimley 1985). 



Observations on and documenta- 

 tion of white shark attack behavior 

 by Tricas and McCosker (1984) also 

 implicate C. carcharias as the at- 

 tacker. First, white sharks usually 

 attack their prey in a swift initial 

 bite from below, behind, or from the 

 side; the bite marks on the pygmy 

 sperm whale are on the left, rear 

 side of the body. Next, in the initial 

 attack the shark opens its mouth by 

 raising the head, dropping the lower 

 jaw, and then thrusting it up into 

 the prey while the upper jaw closes 

 down. The shark will roll or shake 



Manuscript accepted 25 March 1991. 

 Fishery Bulletin, U.S. 89:538-540 (1991). 



538 



