Jumbo (747)

Tag number 747. The name wrote itself.

Seen from above, she looks like a bronze aeroplane — pectoral fins spread absurdly wide for a shark that's already 5.5 metres long.¹³ Jumbo is an adult breeding female, 17-plus feet, one of the largest animals in the Neptune Islands catalogue alongside Dolly, Rhea, and UFO.³

The big females don't behave like the resident males. Imax comes every year. Moo came for fifteen seasons straight. The breeding females cycle through on a slower rhythm — probably tied to reproduction, which in white sharks can span two or more years and remains poorly understood at any size, let alone this one.²

Jumbo appears, disappears, reappears. Long gaps, no pattern anyone can predict yet. Each sighting is a single data point in a cycle that will take decades more to map.

Massive pectoral fins — distinctive planform from above, described as resembling "a bronze airplane."¹ ~5.5m (17+ ft). Tag number 747.