Great White 'Secret' Sex Spot Found?

Aug. 6, 2007 — Thanks to its status as one of the world's top predators, great whites are among the best known sharks on Earth, yet essentially nothing is known about their mating habits.

That could soon change, as researchers have discovered a remote spot in the eastern North Pacific that great whites may be a mating ground, according to a recent paper in the journal Marine Biology.

At first, scientists nicknamed the region, 1,553 miles west of the Baja Peninsula, the "great white café" because they suspected sharks could go there to feed. But, as lead author Kevin Weng explained to Discovery News, there is a potential wrench in that theory.

"It's just not an area that a shark would logically go to from California to find something to eat," said Weng, who conducted the study at Stanford University with project leader Barbara Block. Weng is now a researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

"No seals or sea lions are there," he added, "and it's not a hot area for whales either."

The feeding theory has not been ruled out, nor has the possibility that the site serves as a breeding ground. Some intriguing evidence, in fact, suggests great whites could gather there to mate.

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Weng and his team analyzed satellite telemetry information gathered from three tags that were attached to great whites. The tags revealed the sharks migrate long distances seasonally from the coast of California to Hawaii and to the offshore area.

During the migration they occasionally dive 3,000 feet or more, possibly to "read" geomagnetic, compass-like information emitted from Earth's crust. At the remote spot, however, the sharks dive more often. On average they dive every 10 minutes, 1,000 feet down.