A mysterious predator lurking off the coast of New York has sparked a dangerous hunt for a monster shark capable of tearing apart some of the ocean’s largest animals.
A humpback whale was discovered with a 24-inch bite mark, while a gray seal suffered a 22-inch wound and a 400-pound tuna was found ravaged in the water.
The trail of carnage has turned Montauk into ground zero for a real-life hunt featured in the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week episode Sharkzilla Takes New York, airing on Friday at 9pm ET.
Local shark scientist Craig O’Connell believes the brutal attacks could signal the return of enormous predators once thought to have vanished from the region.
But he also raised a more disturbing possibility: that decades-old barrels of leaking nuclear waste could have affected wildlife inside a vast underwater canyon off the coast.
If his controversial theory were true, the team could be hunting a genetically altered shark that is faster, stronger and deadlier than an ordinary predator.
With a storm rapidly approaching, O’Connell and his crew had just 30 hours to find the creature, tag it and collect tissue for radioactive testing.
They called the suspected monster ‘Sharkzilla.’
The trail of carnage has turned Montauk into ground zero for a real-life hunt featured in the Shark Week episode Sharkzilla Takes New York, airing on Friday at 9pm ET
O’Connell launched the investigation on September 20, 2025, following reports of large marine animals being attacked off Long Island.
Montauk was once famous as a destination where fishermen could encounter exceptionally large sharks, but years of intense fishing devastated their numbers.
O’Connell said: ‘In the past, this is the place you came to catch monster sharks. There are so many records right here off the shores of Montauk.
‘All these monster sharks were completely fished out. They’re gone.
‘But 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.’
His search led the team approximately 100 miles off Montauk to the Hudson Canyon, a gigantic underwater gorge that begins at a depth of roughly 900 feet before plunging to around 4,000 feet.
Comparable in scale to the Grand Canyon, the dark chasm provides a potential hiding place for some of the Atlantic Ocean’s largest predators. It also has a haunting history.
‘In the late 1960s, they dumped 15,000 barrels of nuclear waste in the Hudson Canyon,’ O’Connell said. ‘Ten years later, they went out to check on these barrels, and they were all leaking.’
The team launched a hunt to 100 miles off Montauk to the Hudson Canyon, a gigantic underwater gorge that begins at a depth of roughly 900 feet before plunging to around 4,000 feet
He stressed that his theory linking the waste to the predator was controversial and unproven.
‘Radioactive leaks could be impacting wildlife, even top predators,’ O’Connell said.
‘If 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.’
O’Connell and his team packed their boat with bait and headed toward the canyon, hoping to lure sharks close enough to attach tracking tags and collect tissue samples.
The tags would reveal where the animals traveled, while laboratory tests could determine whether their bodies showed signs of radioactive contamination.
The team reached the canyon’s edge at 4am and lowered a baited camera into the darkness.
Six hours later, they pulled it back to the surface and examined footage captured more than 600 feet underwater in the dimly lit region known as the ocean’s ‘twilight zone.’
The team entered the water to hand-feed the sharks, placing themselves within striking distance as they attempted to tag the animals and secure tissue samples.
A huge mouth suddenly emerged from the darkness and attempted to bite the camera.
‘That is an absolutely massive great white shark,’ O’Connell said after seeing the animal, which he identified as a large female.
Another formidable predator then appeared, a mako shark.
O’Connell and his team entered the water to hand-feed the sharks, placing themselves within striking distance as they attempted to tag the animals and secure tissue samples.
A 10-foot female mako soon made a beeline toward the divers.
Makos are the fastest sharks in the ocean and are capable of moving at speeds exceeding 40 miles per hour, leading O’Connell to suspect that Sharkzilla could be one of them.
The team then deployed a decoy dolphin named Hudson, which was fitted with a large piece of tuna intended to draw the predator closer.
The team entered the water to hand-feed the sharks, placing themselves within striking distance as they attempted to tag the animals and secure tissue samples.
Makos are the fastest sharks in the ocean and are capable of moving at speeds exceeding 40 miles per hour, leading O’Connell to suspect that Sharkzilla could be one of them
Two makos emerged from the depths, an unusual sight because the animals are generally solitary hunters.
They then vanished without warning, raising fears that something much larger had frightened them away.
An enormous shadow eventually appeared, cruised near the team and disappeared into the darkness before they could identify it.
With time running out, the researchers created what they called a ‘blubber blaster,’ designed to mimic the aftermath of a dead whale bursting at the surface and releasing a feast capable of attracting sharks.
Just as the sun began to set, a giant female mako charged toward the boat.
‘This is Sharkzilla,’ O’Connell screamed.
Measuring nearly 12 feet long, the mako appeared powerful enough to have inflicted the enormous wounds found on animals off Long Island.
The monster in question appeared later during the search, measuring nearly 12 feet. The team captured tissue samples, finding no traces of radiation. They did find a mako birthing ground, suggesting that was why the shark was causing chaos in the area
When she refused to approach the cage, O’Connell swam outside and attempted to attach a tracking tag. The first tag bounced off her body, and she disappeared.
Despite fading daylight making the dive increasingly dangerous, O’Connell remained convinced that she would return.
When the mako reappeared, he successfully attached the tag and obtained a tissue sample before the team headed back to Montauk.
Signals from the tracker revealed that Sharkzilla was traveling in the same direction.
Tests ultimately found no evidence that the mako had radioactive mutations, destroying the team’s most alarming theory.
However, the investigation indicated that the waters served as a breeding ground for makos, offering a more natural explanation for the carnage: the predators were hunting to feed their developing pups.
Sharkzilla was not a radioactive mutant, but a huge pregnant mako, an exceptionally fast and formidable predator patrolling the waters off New York.
