Sharkwatch SA Blog

Today saw the return of one of Marine Dynamics and my own favourites, Malcolm X. Don’t be deceived by the name, this shark is a feisty female, approximately 4.0m in length, and has on many occasions been asked about by our visitors. This shark was named in April 2013 by one of our International Marine Volunteers, unfortunately at the time its gender was unknown and once this was discovered the name had already stuck! We do not name all the sharks we see unless there is a physical trait or certain behaviour that is noticeable and with “X” it was a bit of both. She has beautifully active behaviour and is one of those White Sharks that leaves a lasting impression on our guests whilst she also exhibits a bite out of her right pectoral fin and on the same side just under her dorsal fin an x-shaped scar which earned her the name. Since 2013 we have seen this shark return for approximately 3 months in/around the winter of 2014. During this time she was part of a study into natural predations in the area of Shark Alley and was fitted with a clamp to her dorsal fin attaching a crittercam. These cameras are programmed to release after a certain amount of time, unfortunately this one did not pop off when intended and left a mark on her dorsal fin, however with her return today we saw that this has healed over nicely. The White Shark has some astounding healing abilities as seen in wound healing studies conducted by Marine Dynamics and our conservation trust DICT with more details and information available here and here. This is one of the best things for our company to see, a White Shark we have come to know in previous years coming back into the bay big, healthy and active. Welcome back Malcolm X…

"X" visiting us back in 2014

"X" visiting us now

To read more on “Malcolm X” you can view our previous blog posts below:

• Top 10 Named and Famed 
• Daily Trip 03 April 2013
• Daily Trip 18 May 2013
• Daily Trip 04 April 2014
• Daily Trip 18 April 2014