A 15-foot great white shark was bitten by a mystery beast, images shared by a diver has revealed. Jalil Najafov, a shark conservationist, was diving in Isla Guadalupe, Mexico, when he made the rare discovery. The shark can be seen swimming in the ocean with jagged puncture marks stretching the width of two of its fins. It is not clear how or when the fish was bitten but the result is a huge, bloodless, circular scar. 

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Najafov, who is originally from Azerbaijan, said, “I was really surprised as I have never seen anything like this in my life. This bite mark was so huge on a big shark, and I was like, is that real? I have worked with sharks for many years and have never seen such a big scar before!” 

The shark conservationist and filmmaker posted the pictures on his Instagram page, prompting nature lovers to question the shark’s injury. “I sent it to Michael Domeier who also felt it was an attack by another shark. That’s why this photo went very viral,” Najafov said.

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Scherrer was seemingly ready to defend himself against an attack as he is seen pointing his speargun towards the predator. He held the speargun up until the shark was almost face-to-face with him. Luckily for him, the shark had other plans and swam away. A shot of the  encounter was posted by Scherrer on his Instagram account. He wrote: “Well that was kinda gnarly.” 

A few months ago, an incredible footage captured a great white shark that was being dubbed by experts as the world’s most battered shark. The creature was reportedly spotted near the Neptune Islands in South Australia, an area known to be populated by more than 1,000 great white sharks. It was a large male with long scars all over its body. Some experts said the giant predator may have been injured by boat propellers or tuna fish. But their claims couldn’t be confirmed without proper analysis. 

Before that, some explorers managed to film an extraordinary episode that showed two frenzied great white sharks tearing giant chunks out of each other. The impressive footage was part of a 2019 National Geographic documentary titled Cannibal Sharks. It is believed the footage had been captured some years before that.