Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Genus: Carcharodon
Species: Carcharias

Information

Great Whites are fish, but they differ in many different ways. For example, their skeleton is not made of bone, it is made of cartilage. A shark's scales are not broad or smooth like most other fish. They are very rough, like sandpaper!!

Shark's gills are also very different. While the gills of a fish are also covered, the gills of a shark are open. They are called "Gill Slits". Most sharks have 5 slits, but some might have 6 or 7.

Great Whites usually feed on Fishes, other sharks, and most commonly, even marine mammals like sea lions or seals.

Great Whites are the largest predatory fish. They average in size at about 12-16 feet. There really isn't a true "average size" though. Just most sharks tend to grow to about 12 to 16 feet. The Great White's tooth is sharp enough to cut through meat and possibly even wood!! Great Whites are also mostly responsible for nearly all the shark attacks in California. However, most of them are NOT fatal. Click here for the list of shark attacks.

There are also many different attack strategies involved in killing its prey. Most of the time, the prey is bitten from a Great White rising from below it. The shark will then carry the prey and then release it to the surface. The prey(presumbly a seal) will then lose a large amount of blood, because of the bite, and then will later die. The Shark then returns to eat the carcas.

A common attack on humans, is when the Shark bites, it will then spit the prey out because the shark will discover that it made a mistake and will then leave it alone.

Here are some ways to avoid a shark attack: Do not splash too much because sharks might possibly think you are a fish that is wounded, therefore it is thrasing around. Do not tease or tempt a shark, even if it is a small ten footer. You would be surprised how a baby Great White can overpower an adult man. Be sure to swim in the shallow water. Most sharks prefer more deeper water. Do not swim if you have an open cut, or you are bleeding. Sharks can sense blood very well. Avoid large schools of fish, or seals since those are a Great White's favorite food. And most important, do not wear red!! A Great White could possibly mistake you for an injured a seal or fish.

You know, one thing that I bet a Great White Shark fan has to deal with nearly everyday is people telling them that, "Great Whites are evil", "they will kill humans on sight", or "They hunt for humans". Ha!! If all of these were true, there would be MANY human fatal deaths, but there are not. Less than about a third of the attacks from a great white are only fatal, with the rest at least survived the attack. The reason? Sometimes Great Whites happen to mistake us for a sea lion, or a seal, which are their favorites to eat. So next time somebody comes up to you and says, "Great Whites are maneaters", tell them to come by my page and see that they are WRONG!

Greek name - Carcharodon carcharias ->This is derived from carcharos meaning "ragged" and odon meaning "tooth".
Skeleton ->Like all other sharks, the GW's skeleton is cartilaginous (composed of cartilage) instead of bony. This is chiefly why we don't have any fossilized shark bodies - just their teeth.
Size ->There isn't an agreed upon size range for the GW but most experts agree that the length of the shark is usually about 12-16 feet with the maximum figure being about 19-21 feet (although the 21-footer may be apocryphal...it's a record from 1948!)
Teeth ->The teeth of the GW are serrated like a knife. In fact, the serration's make the tooth sharp enough to saw wood! .
Attacks->Most attacks aren't fatal. In fact, a current hypothesis theorizes that the GW will attack it's prey with a massive first bite that causes huge blood loss - and thus, loss of life - and then returns to feed on the carcass. Therefore, the GW is a manbiter, not a man-eater. >

To give an idea of what a GW usually preys upon, think of those cute seals and sea lions (pinnipeds) you often see performing at Sea World. They are the preferred food of the GW - over other fish, other sharks, or even your Aunt Sally.
Seals have highly developed hindflippers and smaller, underdeveloped foreflippers. Sea lions are just the opposite, with highly developed foreflippers and small, underdeveloped hind flippers.
Seals are more likely to be attacked and more often end up lunch for the GW as sea lions tend to escape. This may have to do with their different anatomical structure.

Time of Attacks: Timing of attacks, based on research done off the South Farallon Islands, a location about 30 miles west of San Francisco, indicates that most attacks occurred during the day. This is also supported by the fact that GW sharks have eyes that seem to be more sensitive to daylight viewing. Also, it appeared that the attacks were occurring at the same approximate time each day, possibly due to fact that the seals are forced each day to go into the water because of the tides.

Differences in Attack Strategies: Again, based on evidence from over 100 attacks viewed by researchers at the South Farallon location, interesting differences in attack strategies were noted based on the species of the prey. In the case of the seal, the prey is attacked just beneath the surface by a GW rising from below. A large, elongating blood stain at the surface indicates that the shark carries the seal underwater (or sometimes at the surface) for a distance before removing a bite and releasing the carcass which floats to the surface. Since the attack usually occurs in the area of the head and the seal has a large network of blood vessels in that area, death by exsanguination (loss of blood) or decapitation is often both the result of the first bite and the cause of death. The GW later returns to feed on the carcass.
With the sea lion, a different method of attack is employed. The primary strike is a brutal strike on the animal as it swims at the surface. This strike often propels the shark out of the water with the sea lion captive in its jaws. The sea lion, lacking the network of blood vessels found in the seal, isn't killed by the bite. It instead flounders at the surface until the shark returns for the final kill and feeding.
This evidence complements the widely held "bite and spit" hypothesis (that the shark bites and then releases its prey, a fact observed in a great number of human attacks) but refutes the idea that sharks wait for the prey to die before feeding. In a the great majority of attacks witnessed by the Farallon researchers, the shark would begin feeding after the initial strike, whether the animal was dead or not.

Attacks on Humans: Finally, why do sharks not follow this pattern with an attack on humans? In a human attack, the primary strike is the only contact, as though the shark finds us to be unpalatable. There is a theory on this as well, involving the differences in our anatomy and the pinnipeds. We are mostly muscle where the pinniped body has a great deal of fat. It is theorized that the shark somehow senses this and abandons us as a potential meal because are bodies are not as energy-rich as the pinnipeds. Of course, this is just a theory and although humans are rarely consumed after the initial strike, the strike itself is often enough to kill us - or at least, really screw up our day!

WHAT DO GREAT WHITES EAT?The GW's diet consists mostly of fish (lingcod, salmon, and tuna), squid, other sharks, cetaceans (dolphins and whales), and pinnipeds (seals and sea lions). They also show a preference for carcasses, especially large whales.

ABOUT HOW LONG DOES THE AVERAGE GW LIVE?No one has accurate answers to this question. Since the GW population is so migratory and also so isolated from one fish to the next, it is impossible to pick an animal and follow it. However, scientists studying GW's off the Farallon Islands (currently one of the hotbeds in the world for GW research) have identified by dorsal markings several individual animals and one, Stumpy, so named because she is missing the top portion of her caudal fin, has been observed returning to feed for 18 years. Is she an old shark? A young shark? No one can say for sure.

HOW BIG DO THEY GROW?The GW's maximum size is unknown, mostly because if today we see a 25-footer, we'll say 25. If tomorrow we see a 30-footer, it'll jump to 30 feet. To stick with my latest numbers, the average GW is between 12-16 feet in length. Some of the monsters at the Farallons are 18 feet but this is the exception, rather than the rule. (why bigger at the Farallons? The GW population hasn't been fished out like in other GW hotspots, Australia and South Africa).

WHERE ARE MOST GW'S FOUND?My first inclination is to say 'water' and I would only be half-joking. GW's have been found in the coastal waters of every continent except Antarctica. Most GW excursions happen in Australia and South Africa, due to the denser populations found there.

HOW FAST CAN THEY SWIM?Estimates of 15 miles an hour in burst mode are common. the best thing I've ever seen in talking about a shark design for speed is this, again from McCosker and Ellis' book. The design of the GW and other fast swimming sharks imparts "...characteristics that are well-described by resorting to automotive terminology: the tail imparts low-speed torque, and its high stall speed shape makes acceleration difficult, but once the shark is under way its forward movement is almost effortless." Cool, huh?

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE KILLED EACH YEAR BY GW ATTACKS?There are about 100 shark attacks each year, 30 of which are fatal. Of these 30, the GW can be reasonably assumed to be responsible for perhaps half to a third. Just 10 to 15 people each year out of MILLIONS swimming on the beach.

HOW POWERFUL IS THEIR SENSE OF SMELL OR HOW DO THEY SENSE THEIR PREY?It would be easiest to start with the GW's nostrils. Unlike us humans, who require the nostrils to assist in breathing, the GW (who has gills for this!) uses his sniffer for just that....sniffing (or olfaction, as it is scientifically known)! Each nostril is divided by a skin flap that separates the water it is swimming through into an inflowing current and an outflowing current. As the shark moves it's head from side to side, water enters the nostril and passes through an area that contains a large number of tiny sensory organs known as lamellae. These lamellae are shaped like tiny flower petals and are covered with millions of olfactory cells. Since the water travels over so many of these lamellae, it in turn passes over most of the olfactory cells, giving the GW its primary sensitivity to odors in the water. These cells in turn are directly connected to the olfactory bulb in the brain and turn the shark into a "swimming nose".
The second sensory weapon the GW employs against its prey is seen on the shark as hundreds, perhaps thousands of dark holes that cover the top and underside of the snout. These holes are the ampullae of Lorenzini, which makes them sound more like a dish at the Olive Garden if you ask me...but Dr. Lorenzini didn't so that's what they're called. These holes are very small capsules that are filled with jelly excreted by the shark. Each is sensitive to electrical discharges as small as .005 microvolt, this gives the GW the ability to sense the electrical field distributed by a 1,000 MILE-long copper wire hooked to a D-size battery. The pores achieve this astonishing feat by first their great number (the GW, being a large shark, has a great deal more than say a medium-sized blue) and also because, like the nasal lamellae, each pore in turn uses several sensory cells to "pick up" the signal. The sensory cells lies inside alveoli (little sacs) and these alveoli are connected directly to the brain, no muss, no fuss...just a straight signal to Eating Central.
What good does having a built-in electrical field detection have? Quite a bit. Every creature in the water generates a small electrical field from where their skin meets the water. the mucous membranes that coat the mouth and gills of fish also create steady direct current fields and these fields are directly effected by their breathing patterns. Furthermore, if the animal is bleeding, this puts more ions into the water and further increases the signal which the shark can hone in on like a cruise missile in Iraq. In summation, these two sensory packages, the nasal lamellae and the ampullae of Lorenzini, have evolved over millions of years into detection systems for the very things that make prey more attractive - blood, which indicates injured prey and thus easier to catch prey; and movement, generated by an animal in the water. The GW, which is arguably the most efficient super-predator in nature, has evolved as well, using these packages to their fullest extent. Keep in mind that a study showed that the chum and bait used to bring sharks closer to scientists in research vessels could attract sharks from as far away as 5 kilometers. Pretty sensitive...

HOW MUCH FOOD DOES THE AVERAGE GW EAT, AND HOW OFTEN?Again, no way to be sure. Studies at the Farallons show the animals feasting on a large elephant seal and then the animal doesn't eat for days. This feast may consist of one large 800-pound seal, so it is safe to assume (by scientific means but not fact) that the shark eats at least twice a week and when it does eat, it eats A LOT.

Myths