A social club for great white sharks has been discovered by a group of scientists off the coast of Mexico.
Large numbers of sharks visit the blue waters of Guadalupe Island every year, and is a popular destination for shark diving.
New research carried out by marine scientists and published in the Biology Letters journal, found that a group of great white sharks formed a tight-knit group in 2017 and 2018.
The research also found that the sharks preferred to search for food with friends or in same-sex pairs.
Meanwhile, one specific pair wowed scientists by spending around 70 minutes together, far longer than what is expected.
Speaking in a statement, Florida International University marine scientist, Yannis Papastamatiou said: "Seventy minutes is a long time to be swimming around with another white shark.”
File photo of a great white shark
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Dr Papastamatiou added that such interactions are likely to be "social associations" and not random.
The researchers attached tags to six great white sharks, three male and three female, off the Island between October 2017 and December 2018.
The monitors tracked each shark and alerted scientists when one came in close contact with another.
The newly tagged sharks were also joined in the research by more than 30 other sharks who had previously been tagged in previous expeditions.
The research also found that both male and female sharks preferred to interact with members of the same gender, while the social behaviour of each shark varied.
A large number of the social interactions took place near a seal breeding ground, drawing suggestions that the sharks preferred to hang out near pray.
But researchers do not think the sharks are helping each other out.
"They aren't working together but being social could be a way to share information," Papastamatiou added.
Scientists concluded that more research is needed to draw any firm conclusions given its most recent investigation's small sample size.
