Current Events - 30 Great Whites Share One Whale

      Around Cape Town, South Africa, more than thirty great white sharks have been spotted - all sharing one 36 ft long Brydes whale.  According to scientists, this whale had been dead before it had been attacked by these voracious predators, and so it was an easy meal.  Right after the whale had been smelled or seen by sharks, they swam right over to gorge themselves, and that attracted more and more.  It took about a week for the sharks to finish the whale, but most of them ate during the first two days of its death.
     It was recorded that the largest sharks, 4 meters long, had more power over the smaller sharks, and so took advantage of their size to get the best, biggest, and tastiest pieces. Some small sharks were sighted with puncture marks on their bodies from bigger sharks - it is believed that they forgot their place and didn't treat the bigger sharks with the proper respect, and so got bitten as reminder to show them where they belonged. 
     Usually, sharks hunt and eat seals that swim around Cape Island.  I watched Shark Week over the summer, and I noticed that sharks almost swallow their prey whole.  They were super fast at eating, and they weren't the pickiest.  According to scientists, since there was so much food, it gave the sharks opportunity to eat side by side with minimum squabbling, and they could become choosy.
   They preferred the blubber from the whale over the flesh.  It appears that they can tell the difference, and blubber is richer and has more calories than flesh, so all in all, it's a good choice.  Some sharks would make a 'test bite' in places that hadn't had the flesh removed so as to make sure there was some blubber there before eating, and others spit out pieces of muscle they accidentally ate.  This was interesting, because it shows why most sharks won't attack humans again after their first bite.  For more information, go to: http://news.discovery.com/animals/great-white-sharks-photographed-eating-36-foot-whale.html

     I thought that this article was very interesting, because I've always thought of sharks as the kind of predators that will fight for every scrap of food - blubber or not.  I think that this is a good survival skill, because instead of wasting their belly-space on non-fattening, less rich, and less nutritional meat, they're getting the maximum amount of vitamins they can.  It's kind of like humans, white bread, and brown bread.  We grow full on white bread, when there isn't very much nutritional value when we could be eating brown bread and getting all the nutrients we can.  Sharks are very smart that way.