Whether a Swallow Is Frightened in a Storm

Another, somewhat spooky example of a tagged shark demonstrates the chasms GPS technology will reveal to us in time. Off the coast of Australia, a ten-foot-long, tagged female great white shark that went by the name “Shark Alpha,” disappeared from the radar. According to the tracking device, at four o’clock in the morning, the shark was suddenly torn five hundred yards into the depths, with astonishing power and speed. Within seconds, the chip also recorded a spike in ambient temperature, from 8 degrees Celsius to 25. That is the temperature of an animal’s insides; the shark must have been eaten by an aquatic predator. The chip could be followed for the next eight days, at which point it vanished from the control monitor. It was most likely voided. Four months later, it was found on shore, bleached by gastric acid. Researchers suspect Shark Alpha fell prey to a much larger creature. It will have to have been at least five meters long and weighed two tons or more. But what was it? An orca? Orcas usually hunt close to the surface. The deepest killer whale dive on record is 260 yards. Another great white? This species has a body temperature of 18 degrees—not 25. Could it actually have been a monstrous octopod or a megalodon, a gargantuan prehistoric predator that some say may has survived, hidden in the darkest depths of the ocean?