∆∆∆

Elsa expertly sliced off the end of the great white’s snout (to some gags from the crowd), revealing a cross-section of the complex system of tiny jelly-filled pores that processed olfactory information. She explained that sharks didn’t use their noses for breathing—they used their gills for that—only for smelling. The pores picked up vibrations in the water and the weak electromagnetic fields produced by the muscle contraction and movement of potential prey. They were so sensitive they could detect a half-billionth of a volt in electric fields, as well as traces of blood from as far as four or five miles away.

Next Elsa began removing the shark’s jaws. Just as its teeth weren’t fused to the jaws, the jaws weren’t fused to the skull. This allowed it to spit out its gums, bludgeoning its prey and enlarging the size of its bite. While she made incision after incision, she kept up a steady commentary of facts and biology. She also added her usual jokes to keep the dissection light-hearted. “Why do sharks live in salt water? Because pepper makes them sneeze!” was one of her cringe-worthy favorites.

When she freed the jaws from the shark’s head, Elsa and her colleague, Lasith—a local fisherman and marine biologist with a nicotine-stained moustache—lowered them to the cement floor carefully. A great white’s jaws were worth $10,000 to $20,000. This, along with the substantial monetary value of their fins, and the prestige involved in catching such a notorious predator, was part of the reason they were currently listed as a threatened species on the IUCN Red List.

Crouching beside the gaping maw to show that she fit neatly inside it, Elsa explained that despite the massive size of the jaws, great whites didn’t have a particularly powerful bite compared to other animals such as saltwater crocodiles, jaguars, or spotted hyenas. This was because, as she’d told Julie earlier, they didn’t chew, and their razor-sharp teeth could slice through anything they came in contact with.

Standing up, she exchanged the filleting knife for a bone saw and performed the laborious task of decapitating the great white. She extracted the brain from the cartilage cranium and held it before her, allowing Mark to capture a combination of slow pans and tight close-ups that elicited a mixture of delight and repulsion from the audience. She then placed it in a white bucket with a wet thump. Later, she would take measurements and perform a detailed examination to compare its major regions to other, better understood, shark species.

The great white’s heart was also in its head. Elsa removed the pink organ and again held it before her for Mark to film. Like the brain, it was relatively small in comparison to shark’s body size, though the aorta still dwarfed a human finger.

“How’s everyone faring so far?” Elsa asked the crowd as she rinsed blood from her gloved hands in the shed’s sink. “Nobody’s fainted yet, I hope?”

“It’s gross!” shouted Julie, and several of her classmates echoed this sentiment.