Profile: Great White Shark
Attacks: 400+
Fatalities: 74 (Planet Deadly)
Size range: 15-20ft (Nat Geo)
(larger specimins estimated to be as large as 25ft)
Populaton status: Vulnerable (WWF)
Behaviour
It's extremely rare that Great Whites ‘attack’ humans, as like other marine life they will test bite what they see. They liked what they saw, often mistaking us for seals or sea lions. After the initial test bite they will realise that we are not food for them and will swim away and rarely return. That's why fatalities from Great Whites are lower per attack compared to other sharks. Most fatalities are caused by blood loss from the initial test bite. Great Whites are not particularly territorial so if you remain calm upon encountering one and slowly swim away they may not even notice you.
This video shows Ocean Ramsey, an shark expert swimming with a Great White Shark in the wild. This is definatly not advised as Ocean Ramsey is an expert on understanding the body language of the species. The shark is showing no aggression or even interest to the human. This somewhat proves that Great Whites do normally not knowingly attack people.
Habitat
In contrats to most fish, which are mostly cold-blooded the Great White Shark is actually warm-blooded. Meaning it regulated its own body temeprature. Allowing it to adapt to other water temperatures. For this reason the Great White Shark can be found in every ocean, excluding the artic ocean.
Great Whites typically prefer coastal areas, on the outskirts of shore waters. Although they prefer to stay near the surface they can also be found at depths of 1000 metres or more (Sharksider, 2015).
Great Whites are most common along the coats of South Africa, Austaria, California and the northeast of Amercia. Although they can be found in fewer numbers almost everywhere as shown on the shark habitat map.
Figure 1: Shows a habitat map for Great White Sharks (Sharksider, 2015)
Hunting
The Great White Sharks is one of the most advanced predators in the animal kingdom. They have an incredible sense of smell as mentioned above as well as adapted vision, enabling them to see in the murkiest of waters. Many sharks have a 6th sense, they can detect the electromagnetic field of other animals alowing them to finely locate their prey. All of these senses combine for a deadly hunter. Great Whites are stricktly carnivores, their diet consists of small whales, sea lions, seals, sea turtles and carrion (Nat Geo). Great White Sharks have an incredible sense of smell, according to National Geographic Great White Sharks can smell just a little blood from three miles away.
Great Whites often attack larger and faster mammals from below leaving their prey with no chance of escaping. This method is called breaching, the shark attack from directly below and breach out of the water while biting their prey often leaving them stunned and without a chance of survival from the shear power of impact.
Sharksider, 'The Great White Shark', date published: 2014, found at: http://www.sharksider.com/great-white-shark/
National Geographic, 'Great White Shark', date published: unknown, found at: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/great-white-shark/
Planet Deadly, 'Most Dangerour Sharks', date published: December 5th, 2013, found at: http://www.planetdeadly.com/animals/dangerous-sharks
Sharks World, 'Great White Shark – Carcharodon carcharias', date published: 2014, found at: http://www.sharks-world.com/great_white_shark/