   GW images courtesy www.greatwhite.org
What do we really know about them? The Great White shark (Carcharodon carcharias), also known as white pointer, or white death, is a large shark found in coastal surface waters in all major oceans. However, their greatest concentrations can be found off the southern coasts of Australia, South Africa and California. It’s called a Great White because its underbelly is white. Its top is more of a greyish blue. The Great White reaches lengths of more than 5m and may weigh up to 2,000kg. It becomes sexually mature at around 15 years of age and has a lifespan of 30 to over 100 years. The Great White shark is arguably the world’s largest known predatory fish, eating dolphins, porpoises, whale carcasses, seals and sea lions. It is an open-ocean dweller and lives between the surface and 1,280m. It is most often found close to the surface. Jaws, the movie and book franchise, provided the Great White shark with the image of a “man eater” in the public mind. In reality, humans are not appropriate prey for white sharks. While Great White sharks have killed a few humans, they typically do not target them: for example, in the Mediterranean Sea there have been 31 confirmed attacks against humans in the last 200 years, most non-fatal. In fact, you are more likely to be struck by lightning.
|
