Sharks remain among the world’s most maligned and misunderstood animals.

Perhaps we need something titled My Great White Teacher to pop up on Netflix to recalibrate how we view these denizens of the deep, although swimming with Nukumi every day (say it in the voice) would take some mettle.

The 50-year-old, 1 600-kilogram, 5,2-metre long great white shark, captured and tagged off the coast of Nova Scotia in Canada, is named after the legendary wise old grandmother figure of the Native American Mi’kmaq people, reports CNN.

Scientists from OCEARCH, an ocean data-collection organisation, call the female the “Queen of the Ocean”, and were very stoked to tag and sample her last week:

Nukumi is the largest of eight great whites that researchers have sampled during the current expedition, which has been running for 27 days as of Monday…

The group is using the data to learn about migration patterns and uncover previously unknown details about shark lives.

Nukumi is the largest shark that the organisation has ever tagged, with expedition leader Chris Fischer saying she has “all the scars, healed wounds and discolourations that tell a deep, rich story of her life going back years”.

OCEARCH released footage from the tag and release over a few days, starting with this video:

3,541 lb #greatwhiteshark “Nukumi” is an ancient mature female #whiteshark or “Queen of the Ocean” that will share years worth of knowledge with the collaborative #OCEARCH science team. #ExpeditionNovaScotia #FactsOverFear pic.twitter.com/USVdvfqrdm

— OCEARCH (@OCEARCH) October 3, 2020

Then this, from their Facebook page:

And finally, this video, by far my favourite of the lot, featuring Fischer talking about why this is such a special individual:

After watching that, it’s surely impossible not to have immense respect for the shark, as well as the researchers and scientists hard at work to secure the survival of the species.

If that doesn’t do the trick, how about this beaut breaching in False Bay?

[source:cnn]