Large teeth marks found when underwater vehicle surfaces off Canada. What bit it?
.jpg "Researchers were exploring waters 170 miles off Halifax, Canada, when something bit their autonomous underwater vehicle, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada.")
It’s unsettling when science equipment vanishes while exploring the ocean floor, but stranger still is when it returns covered in teeth marks.
That happened to an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) 170 miles east of Halifax, Canada, and it left experts guessing what tried to eat their equipment.
A photo shared by Fisheries and Oceans Canada shows the damage included punctures and scrapes, the latter of which likely occurred as the AUV pulled itself from the predator’s jaws.
.jpeg "attackshar_fitted (2).jpeg")
Best guess: a shark.
“The teeth marks on the tail of the glider suggest that it was a white shark,” the government agency wrote in a Nov. 1 Facebook post.
“White sharks can be found anywhere along the coasts of Atlantic Canada. They’re curious fish, especially around new or unknown objects — like an ocean glider!”
The shark was likely big enough not to be daunted by the AUV’s size. The vehicles range from a few hundred pounds to several thousand pounds and are used to explore areas that “are a challenge to study because they are difficult to get to,” according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ocean Exploration.
Great white sharks can grow to 20 feet and gravitate to the Northwest Atlantic over the summer to feed on blue fin tuna and gray seals, experts say. In the fall, they migrate south down the East Coast toward warmer waters off the southeastern United States.
Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia.
This story was originally published November 4, 2024 at 7:38 AM with the headline "Large teeth marks found when underwater vehicle surfaces off Canada. What bit it?."