The megalodon is a prehistoric shark that is believed to have grown approximately 60 feet long and have gone extinct around 2.6 million years ago. However many people don't believe they are gone.
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To put it in perspective, we know more about outer space than we do about our own oceans, so there really is no way to prove or disprove whether or not the megalodon still swims in our oceans. But that doesn't stop people from arguing about it.
So today we are going to look at some alleged sightings. While there aren't many as it is believed that if this animal still exists that it lives in the Mariana Trench, which is the deepest part of the ocean and isn't totally explorable (not even sure if that is a word but you get the point)
[THE GREAT BARRIER REEF]
In his 1978 book Let's Go Fossil Shark Tooth Hunting, author B.C. Cartmell describes an alleged incident that took place off the edge of Australia's Great Barrier Reef in the 1960s.
According to Cartmell, the sailors involved initially refused to speak of the incident because they feared teasing. But after time, they admitted that when their 85-foot ship was forced to weigh anchor for engine repairs, the captain and crew were shocked to see a gargantuan shark swim slowly past their stuck ship. It rivaled the boat in size. All aboard agreed it was not a whale.
[THE BLACK DEMON OF CORTEZ]
The Black Demon of Cortez is believed to be a massive, black shark seen off Mexico's Baja Coast. Some reports allege that the big boy may even be comparable in size to the ancient megalodon. In one alleged encounter, fisherman Eric Mack reported that the Black Demon rocked his boat, while its towering tail stuck five feet out of the water.
[MAN EATING MONSTERS]
Novelist and deep-sea angler Zane Grey claimed to have had an experience with a massive shark that some believe could have been a megalodon. In the novel Megalodon: Fact or Fiction?, Rick Emmer writes that Grey claimed to have seen "one of the man-eating monsters of the South Pacific," a shark much longer than his 30-40-foot boat. Apparently, the shark was "yellow and green ... (with a) square head, immense pectoral fins and a few white spots." In other words, not a mere "harmless white shark."
