Shark Week team discovers the rare “Blackmacos” off the coast of California

In 2019, Shark Tagger Keith Poe worked off the coast of California when he hooked an incredibly large “Black Mako” shark. The shark looked bigger and darker than the shortfin macus (isurus paucus). This is generally dark blue or gray, with white underneath gray.

This sighting is the basis for the new shark week show, “The Black Mako of the Abyss,” where the team is trying to find more of these Black Makos in an attempt to solve exactly what Poe caught six years ago. Proposals of the creature’s unusual appearance and size include genetic variation and the possibility of shortfin macos hybridization with other species.

In the episode, Poe works with environmental scientist Kendil Bernah, marine biologist Tristan Gatorage and shark attack survivor Paul de Gelder to travel 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the coast of California, tempting sea predators in the hopes of attracting black Makos. Their ultimate goal is to get tissue samples and perform genetic analysis to find out what mystical animals really are.

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During the show, the team invites the sharks using helicopters carrying hundreds of gallons of chum. They later unfold a white shark decoy to see if Machus interacts with it.

This shark appears to have short and longfin fin features, like in Poe’s original video, and the team speculates that it could be a longfin maco (isurus paucus), or a longfin/shortfin hybrid.

Unlike shortfins, Longfin Mako Sharks are more elusive and live in waters deeper from the coastline. As a result, they are less understood than their shortfin cousins and have bigger questions about their range and habitat, but sightings from California are particularly rare. Physically, their bodies are thinner than short fins, with longer twitch fins and darker colours.

To establish whether Blackmachos is potentially long fin, the team has released baits encouraging sharks to infringe. The captured footage revealed some short fins, but one appears to have a much longer chest thread than average, raising the idea of a short fin/long fin hybrid again.

Shark hybridization is not unheard of. In 2019, scientists reported a scalloped hammerhead (Sfilnarwini) and a Carolina hammerhead (S. Gilberty) hybrid in the western North Atlantic, and in 2011, they discovered a hybrid of the black-chip waler shark Carcharhinus Tilstoni and C. Limbatus in Australia.

The Shark Week team tried to get samples from the Black Makos to see if it was a hybrid, but the sharks were too fast.

Experts say there is no possibility of short/long fin hybridization. There is no evidence of mating between the two species, and even if we do so, the hybrid offspring will likely be infertile.

“Species that differ in naturally overlapping ranges do not usually hybridize. If they are, and the offspring is viable, the species will return to one,” Jess, Morgan, the chief scientist in the Department of Animal Science at Queensland, Australia’s Queensland Department of Major Industry, told Live Science via email.

“Natural hybridization can occur naturally, but only occurs in restricted regions of a species, often referred to as hybrid zones,” Morgan added. “Hybrids can survive and breed in nature (this looks like the case with black chip sharks), but in most cases they are less suitable than pure species, so don’t pass on any DNA.”

Morgan was a co-author of the 2011 Black Chip Hybrid Study, saying that DNA evidence is needed to establish whether a strange-looking shark is a hybrid. “One thing we know about sharks is that differences in appearance can be misleading.” “Many species can easily be confused, especially if they belong to the same genus and are not fully grown.”

Bernah said another possibility is that the black machos are just long fins approaching the coastline, or short fins with mutations that help hunt in deeper oceans like skin. Changes in the environment could potentially explain changes in the shark range. Climate change, for example, has been linked to tiger sharks (Galocel de Cubier) that have travelled north over the past decades.

“I think these black macos we’re seeing could actually be longfin macos,” Burna told Live Science. “When you see a less documented mako in these waters, not supposed to be in these waters, you’re probably thinking, ‘Wow, that’s a odd looking short fin mako.’

Longfinmacos tend to be found in more tropical waters and are known off the coast of Mexico, but as ocean temperatures get hotter, its distribution may also migrate north, Bernah said. “Global warming, climate change – it is not only constantly changing the distribution of animals, but also overfishing [changing] Locations where prey and food sources are available. There are many reasons why animals, especially sharks, can change their geographical distribution and range. ”

Douglas Adams, a researcher with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee, said genetic analysis was necessary to answer these questions about the rare Makos discovered by the group. “There are many questions about the range and habitat use of Longfin Makos,” he told Live Science in an email. “Longfinmachos ecology and biology are not well understood, but the range of many other fish species is changing due to marine warming and other factors.”

Bernah said he wants to get samples to find out what these black machos are. “Genetic samples are the absolute best form of confirmation that we can get. Ultimately, that’s the goal.”