Daddy shark doo doo doo doo?
Researchers were flabbergasted after picking up what appeared to be a massive 50-foot “Megalodon” on sea scanners underneath their boat. An Instagram post detailing the alleged “discovery” is currently making waves amid the shark scourge plaguing US waters.
“On a recent shark research trip, we were all amused to see this shape appear on our fish finder for several minutes,” researchers with the Atlantic Shark Institute wrote regarding the sinister shape detected in undisclosed waters.
They initially mistook it for a Megalodon — a prehistoric shark that’s been extinct for three million years, and was the subject of the 2018 horror movie “Meg” based on the book of the same name.
“Based on the length of the image we estimated the ‘Meg’ to be about 50 feet long, weighing in at 40 tons!” the ecstatic researchers wrote.
An accompanying screenshot of the fish finder shows the massive mark, which appeared to be in the shape of a giant shark complete with a dorsal fin.
Unfortunately, the scientists’ excitement quickly faded after the mythical monster turned out to be a school of fish — in other words, it was a red herring.
“We waited for one of the rods to go off however, much to our disappointment, the shape started to transition into a large school of Atlantic Mackerel that hung around the boat for about 15 minutes,” lamented the disillusioned researchers. “So close, but so far! The Megalodon (Otodus megalodon), disappeared more than 3 million years ago and will likely stay that way, but, for a few minutes, we thought he had returned!”
Instagram viewers commiserated with the crestfallen shark enthusiasts.
“I got excited for 10 seconds,” said one, while another wrote, “Haha — that would’ve got my heart racing.”
“I was hopeful,” rued another armchair cryptozoologist. “Meg had a huge Boop there. Almost wish she was real. Almost.”
As of yet, no one has seen a Megalodon, also known as a Megatooth shark, which reportedly went extinct around 2.58 million years ago, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The largest fish ever known, the Megalodon, reportedly weighed up to 143,000 pounds and attained a maximum length of 59 feet — three times as long as the biggest great white sharks. If that wasn’t terrifying enough, the monstrous predator also boasted a 10-foot wide mouth, which it reportedly used to devour whales and other supersized prey.
While the shark itself has yet to be seen by human eyes, its colossal fossilized teeth are fairly common with a recent discovery coming in 2020, when a South Carolina woman found one that weighed a pound.
In a similar incident last year, cruise ship passengers were flabbergasted after spotting a giant shark in the Atlantic Ocean that many social media users speculated was a Megalodon. However, others surmised that the beast was a basking shark, a harmless filter feeder that’s as big as a double-decker bus.