Daily Mail<\/a>.<\/p>\nIn a chilling twist, O\u2019Connell also floated the theory that decades-old barrels of leaking nuclear waste could have genetically mutated the animal into a super-shark, and caused other wildlife to morph in a vast underwater canyon, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the late 1960s, they dumped 15,000 barrels of nuclear waste in the Hudson Canyon,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201cTen years later, they went out to check on these barrels, and they were all leaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRadioactive leaks could be impacting wildlife, even top predators,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The underwater predator reportedly sunk its teeth into a humpback whale,\u00a0it with a 2 foot bite mark.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf animals are subjected to nuclear waste, this could cause genetic mutations and abnormal growth. If this predator is genetically altered, it could be faster, stronger and deadlier than any predator on Earth. We are calling it Sharkzilla,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On the show, O\u2019Connell frantically hunted the shark in order to tag and collect its tissue for radioactive testing.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell also said there are signs\u00a0that the New York coastline is a hotbed for massive mako sharks, which can grow more than 14 feet long.<\/p>\n
One expert theorized that the shark had mutated from a nuclear waste leak.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past, this is the place you came to catch monster sharks. There are so many records right here off the shores of Montauk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll these monster sharks were completely fished out. They\u2019re gone,\u201d he said. \u201cBut all the evidence we are seeing is telling me that all these big sharks might be back. I know those big sharks are out there, and we are going to find them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Test results ultimately found no evidence that the \u201cSharkzilla\u201d was radioactive, and scientists said she was likely a pregnant mako shark with exceptionally fast and deadly hunting skills.<\/p>\n
The underwater investigation also revealed the area is now as a breeding ground for makos, and that formidable female sharks were likely hunting to feed their developing pups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This monster shark\u2019s going totally nuclear on New York\u2019s coastline! A massive, nearly 12-foot man-eater has been wreaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1457,57,9,24,55,54,56,117588,16200,255,58],"class_list":["post-310899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-animals","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-shark-week","tag-sharks","tag-the-hamptons","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}