CBS News
These images may provide the world’s first-ever look at a live newborn great white shark
Great white sharks are among the most notable of the ocean’s apex predators, but a crucial part of their existence has never before been recorded, or even seen – until now. For the first time ever, an infant great white shark is believed to have been caught on camera, shortly after it was born.
For years, wildlife photographer and videographer Carlos Gauna has ventured out to spend hours filming sharks, a process that he calls seeking to uncover “the secret lives of sharks.”
“I want to kind of tell the story of what sharks do when we aren’t watching, we aren’t interacting with them, when we’re not touching them,” he told CBS. News. “…And through that experience, I’ve seen some sharks doing some really wild things, things that have no explanation. … You never know what you’re going to see.”
Carlos Gauna/ @TheMalibuArtist
And when Gauna set out on July 9 last year, he had no idea what he would come across. After spending three years observing sharks in the Santa Barbara area, he said he had noticed a gathering of “really large sharks” during a particular month.
“It’s always food or reproduction or something,” he said. “They’re coming here for a reason.”
The birthing habits of great whites are largely unknown to the scientific community. From what researchers have observed, the animals have a gestation period of more than a year, with mother sharks typically carrying between two to 10 pups at a time. The animals are ovoviviparous, meaning the eggs containing their embryos hatch within their bodies but later emerge through a live birth after fully developing.
Gauna suspected that the sharks in this area may be giving birth, but when he brought it up to scientists and conducted research, he said he was mostly told that white sharks will only give birth in deeper waters. But then, using the second-to-last battery in his drone, he and his partner, University of California, Riverside, biology doctoral student Phillip Sternes, “observed a big, big shark go down” underwater around 1,000 feet from shore.
Carlos Gauna/ @TheMalibuArtist
“Just a few minutes later, this little bitty thing comes up from that spot,” he told CBS News, saying that at first they thought the roughly 5-foot-long nearly purely white animal may have been an albino shark. “…It was tiny – really, really small compared to all the other sharks.”
Then he played back the video, and he noticed a white film sloughing off the shark as it swam.
“I think Phil’s words were, ‘Oh my God, I think that might be a newborn,'” he said. In a press release, he added, “There have been dead white sharks found inside deceased pregnant mothers. But nothing like this.”
Some scientists the duo spoke to believe that what they observed was a skin condition, but Gauna – whose findings were peer-reviewed and published Monday in the journal Environmental Biology of Fishes – believes what they witnessed was the newborn shark shedding intrauterine milk. According to a separate study in 2022 by other researchers, white sharks produce a “lipid-rich secretion for embryonic nutrition” known as uterine milk within their uterine wall.
He also said that the shark’s size and shape, as well as the fact that pregnant sharks had previously been seen in the area, indicated it was a newborn. The shark was roughly five feet long – a size known for newborn great whites – and its fin was short and rounded.
“I just don’t see how a skin disorder explains this,” he said. “Given the size of the shark, given the unique roundness of that dorsal fin – they can’t give birth with a dorsal fin that’s straight and long, straight and pointed. They have to be rounded in order to exit.”
Capturing a live birth across any species is rare, Gauna said, because “it’s just so unpredictable.” And while finding a newborn shark isn’t exactly the “holy grail” of shark science because it’s not the birth itself, Gauna said it’s a “key component” that can help researchers get there. It’s particularly important for great whites, as the species is considered vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.
Carlos Gauna/@TheMalibuArtist
“Filming in the ocean is one of the hardest things to do on this planet,” he said. “…[With great whites] we’ve always believed it’s deep, it’s offshore. So this is why I think this is very significant in that maybe we should start looking closer to shore.”
For Gauna, the research isn’t over. He’s had a fascination for sharks since he was 5 years old, when he had a toy shark that he played with in the bath. Over the years, he says he’s witnessed the animals undergoing significant harm, including boat collisions and fishing> He said at one point, he even filmed a dead great white that had a “rope tied around its mouth and the jaws pulled out” – in the same spot where he filmed the newborn.
The animals need more research and protection, Gauna said, and he plans on continuing to investigate the “curious, calm and calculating creatures” that remain so mysterious to the scientific community.
“Any nursery for any species should be considered important,” he said. “…We’re gonna go back and see if we can capture it again.”
A judge in France on Thursday found the former husband of Gisèle Pelicot, who admitted to drugging and raping her repeatedly over the course of almost a decade and inviting dozens of other men to assault her as well, guilty of aggravated rape. Over the course of her trial, Pelicot — who insisted her full name be published and proceedings be made public — has been praised for her courage and become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in France and around the world. The judge on Thursday was reading out verdicts for dozens of other men also accused of raping her.
Pelicot arrived Thursday at the court in Avignon, southeast France, where crowds had gathered outside holding signs saying: “Thank you for your courage.”
The trial began on Sept. 2, and almost every day, Pelicot came face to face with her former husband, Dominique, or one of the 49 other men charged with raping her. One other man faced a charge of aggravated sexual assault. She insisted that videos submitted as evidence, made by her ex-husband showing men sexually assaulting her while she appeared to be unconscious, be shown in open court.
The assaults took place between 2011 and 2020, when Dominique Pelicot was taken into custody. Police found thousands of photos and videos of the abuse on his computer drives, which helped lead them to other suspects. Some of the men testified they thought the unconscious woman was OK with it, or that her husband’s permission was enough.
“Gisèle Pelicot thinks that this shock wave is necessary, so that no one can say after this: ‘I didn’t know this was rape,'” her attorney, Stéphane Babonneau, told The Associated Press.
“It’s not for us to feel shame — it’s for them,” Pelicot said in court, referring to the attackers. “Above all, I’m expressing my will and determination to change this society.”
Controversial French laws
Pelicot’s case triggered protests across France, and there was hope among some demonstrators that the case could lead to changes in controversial French laws governing sexual consent.
France introduced a legal age of sexual consent in 2021 after a public outcry over the rape of an 11-year-old schoolgirl by a man who was initially convicted on a lesser charge. Since then, sex with anyone under the age of 15 has been viewed as non-consensual, but French law does not refer to consent in cases involving older victims.
Under French law, rape is defined as penetration or oral sex using “violence, coercion, threat or surprise,” without taking consent into account, according to the Reuters news agency. Prosecutors must, therefore, prove an intention to rape if they are to be successful in court, legal experts told Reuters.
Just 14% of rape accusations in France lead to formal investigations, according to a study by the Institute of Public Policies.
“Why don’t we manage to obtain convictions? The first reason is the law,” legal expert Catherine Le Magueresse told Reuters. “The law is written in such a way that victims must comply with the stereotype of a ‘good victim’ and a ‘true rape’: an unknown attacker, use of violence, and the victim’s resistance. But it is only true for a minority of rapes.”
“I’m trying to understand”
Speaking in court during the trial, Pelicot, who is 72, talked about how she had thought she was in a loving marriage with her husband and would never have guessed that he was drugging her.
“We would have a glass of white wine together. I never found anything strange about my potatoes,” Pelicot told the court.
“We finished eating. Often when it’s a football match on TV, I’d let him watch it alone. He brought my ice cream to my bed, where I was. My favorite flavor — raspberry — and I thought: ‘How lucky I am. He’s a love.'”
She said she didn’t have any sensation of being drugged.
“I never felt my heart flutter. I didn’t feel anything. I must have gone under very quickly. I would wake up with my pajamas on,” Pelicot told the court, adding that she would sometimes wake up “more tired than usual, but I walk a lot and thought it was that.”
“I’m trying to understand,” she said, “how this husband, who was the perfect man, could have got to this.”
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says workers at seven Amazon facilities will begin a strike Thursday morning in an effort by the union to pressure the e-commerce giant for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.
The Teamsters say the workers, who authorized walkouts in the past few days, are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Amazon says it doesn’t expect any impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.
The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.
Amazon is ranked No. 2 on the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest companies.
At a warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, thousands of workers who voted for the Amazon Labor Union in 2022 and have since affiliated with the Teamsters. At the other facilities, employees – including many delivery drivers – have unionized with them by demonstrating majority support but without holding government-administered elections.
The strikes happening Thursday are taking place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and six delivery stations in southern California, New York City, Atlanta and the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement. Amazon workers at the other facilities are “prepared to join” them, the union said.
“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” he said.
The Seattle-based online retailer has been seeking to re-do the election that led to the union victory at the warehouse on Staten Island, which the Teamsters now represent. In the process, the company has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.
Meanwhile, Amazon says the delivery drivers, which the Teamsters have organized for more than a year, aren’t its employees. Under its business model, the drivers work for third-party businesses, called Delivery Service Partners, who drop off millions of packages to customers everyday.
“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.“
The Teamsters have argued Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer.
Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in filings made before the NLRB. In September, Amazon boosted pay for the drivers amid the growing pressure.
NEW YORK — The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon at numerous locations across the country, including in Maspeth, Queens.
The Teamsters are calling it the largest strike against Amazon in United States history, and it’s set to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday. In addition to New York City, workers will be joining picket lines in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois.
In a video announcement released Wednesday night, workers voiced their frustrations.
“Us being strike ready means we’re fed up, and Amazon is clearly ignoring us and we want to be heard,” one worker says in the video.
“It’s really exciting. We’re taking steps for ourselves to win better conditions, better benefits, better wages,” another worker in the video says.
The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon employees and that Amazon ignored a deadline to come to the table and negotiate. The $2 trillion company doesn’t pay employees enough to make ends meet, the union asserts.
At the height of the holiday season, many are wondering what this means for packages currently in transit.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”
Amazon says Teamsters are misleading the public
An Amazon spokesperson says the Teamsters are misleading the public and do not represent any Amazon employees, despite any claims.
“The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
An Amazon representative says the company doesn’t expect operations to be impacted.
