Massive sea creature with over 3,000 teeth spotted near Texas coast, video shows
Boaters recently spotted a mysterious figure moving under the waves in the Texas Gulf, so they jumped in for a closer look, video shows.
“(Blessed) to have witnessed this so close to shore,” Alexus Jade wrote in a TikTok post, which had been viewed over 110,000 times as of the afternoon of Aug. 15.
Their vision fills with bubbles as they plunge into the water, video shows, but the creature quickly comes into focus — a whale shark.
The blue and white-speckled beast seems unconcerned with the surprise visitor, traveling at a leisurely pace with an entourage of remoras, video shows.
Though they are the largest of the sharks — and the largest of all fish — whale sharks are gentle giants, experts say. They’re filter feeders and use their massive mouths to suck in little prey such as plankton or schooling fish, according to Oceana.org.
Jade shared the experience with Addison Smith, a friend and founder of Gulf Magic Charters, a charter service based in Port Aransas, she told the Houston Chronicle.
While whale sharks are known to wander warm waters all over the world, including the Gulf of Mexico, it’s rare to see them near the shore, Smith commented on the post.
They were 6 miles off the coast of Port Aransas, in waters roughly 50 feet deep, he added.
The shark was “very calm,” Jade told the Houston Chronicle. “You can (see) it just cruising around the water with other sea life swimming around it. It was just swimming around until it finally dove back down.”
Despite their intimidating size and about 3,000 tiny teeth, whale sharks are considered “harmless to humans,” according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. “However, there have been a few cases of whale sharks ramming sportfishing boats, possibly after being provoked.”
Knowing it was harmless, some wanted to know why Jade didn’t swim closer to the shark, the Chronicle reported.
“The simple answer to that is we didn’t want to disturb its peace,” she said.
Whale sharks are known to grow up to 46 feet in length and weigh as much as 24,000 pounds, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It is believed they can live for 100 years or more, though the oldest documented whale shark is 75 years old.
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