The Great White Shark

Buy at AllPosters.com

A Great White (or GW for short) has a white underbelly and a mottled gray, blue dorsal fin area. This helps it blend in with the seabed and take prey by surprise. The GW's snout is conical in shape and its body is streamlined, allowing it to slip through water barely disturbing the flow. It also allows it to swim faster than some sharks or marine mammals.

The GW has serrated teeth that are placed in rows. Since their teeth are not firmly rooted in the jaw, the teeth fall out or are swallowed by the shark when it grabs prey. If a front tooth falls out, one of the teeth that are rowed behind it moves forward and replaces it. In some cases, when a GW swallows their own tooth, they can become sick because they can't digest it properly.

The typical GW is approximately 13-16 feet in length, although they can grow to be more than 20 feet. In fact, scientists have been known to debate how big the GW can actually grow. Since they are a fish, they have no skeleton, but instead have cartilage which acts like a skeleton. This helps the shark stay buoyant in the water and allows it to turn more quickly than if it had a skeleton structure.

The GW usually sticks close to the water's surface, but it can dive deeper and has been known to dive more than 4000 feet below the surface. It also sticks close to the coast because much of its prey resides on land, like the seal.

The GW can be found in the open ocean, especially near the coasts of Australia, California, South Africa, Mexico and New Zealand.

GW's don't stay in one place either. Tagged sharks have been tracked over long distances and scientists are beginning to believe that the GW actually migrates. Why they would do this is unknown, although many scientists believe it's because they follow their prey as they migrate to give birth.

Buy at AllPosters.com

The Great White is considered an apex predator, which means it has no natural predators. However, in some cases, the GW has been known to be killed by Killer Whales and Dolphins over territorial or food disputes.

The GW is a carnivore, and it dines primarily on fat sea mammals like the seal and otter, as well as smaller fish, whale carcasses, porpoises, smaller sharks and rays. A hungry GW will try to eat almost anything.

The GW likes to ambush prey. Their coloring makes it easy for them to blend in with their surroundings and they will try to get beneath their prey and take them from below. Once a GW has a hold on their prey, they will typically shake their head back and forth to allow for their serrated teeth to shred large portions of flesh. One bite from a GW can be fatal.

If they miss their prey, they will try to chase it down. One of the videos below actually shows a GW who misses a seal and chases it afterwards.

When GW's hunt dolphins they will try to take them by surprise either from the side, below or above to avoid detection by the dolphins sonar. The GW is extremely fast in the water, and can reach a top speed of 25 miles per hour. However, because of their great size, they can't turn as quickly as some porpoises, fish and marine mammals, which is why ambush is the best tactic for this huge predator.

Not a whole lot is known about the GW's behaviour. They are hard to track and naturally hard to get up, close and personal with.

The female Great White is generally larger than the male, which gives it dominance. GW's are also cannibalistic and will eat their young. In most cases, the GW doesn't bother fighting others of its species, although a few have been found with bite marks from others of its kind.

The GW is a curious animal and will bump things with its huge head to try and figure out if it's indeed food. GW's will bump shark cages, propellers and boats in an attempt to figure out what it is. Also, the GW is one of the only sharks (or fish for that matter) that can actually raise its head above the water's surface to get a view of its surroundings.

Buy at AllPosters.com

Like many other things about the Great White, how they reproduce is basically a mystery. About the only things known about how the GW reproduces is that the gestation period is 11 months and it's thought that once the young are born, the weaker young get eaten by the stronger, thus ensuring that only the strong survive.

Of course, the mother and any other GW in the area will eat the young if they find them, which is why the GW gives birth while it's still moving. By the time the pups have popped out, the mother is on its way to find more food.

The tourism industry has capitalized nicely on viewing the Great White shark in its natural habitat. Tourists will pay handsomely to be lowered in a shark cage so that they can view the GW in all its glory. Typically, the water will be full of chum to draw the shark closer.

If you want to see this practice firsthand, I have a video of it at the bottom of this site.

So very little is known about this great animal that many aquariums and amusement parks have entertained the notion of keeping a GW in captivity so that they can study it and make money from tourists. However, every GW to be captured has died in captivity or been released back into the wild. In most cases, the GW in question refuses to eat and dies shortly afterward.

Buy at AllPosters.com

The Great White shark is considered an endangered species. They've been hunted because of fear and because their fins, skin and jaw are worth enormous amounts of money. Some fishermen also consider it a great challenge to capture and kill a GW.

On top of this, Great Whites give birth infrequently, which means they can't replace the number of sharks killed by humans quickly enough to replenish their dwindling numbers. It is currently illegal to hunt the GW, although some people continue to do so despite the fines.

It would be a shame if this prehistoric predator was to die out because of greed and human encroachment on their natural habitat. At the moment, there is no accurate way to estimate the number of Great Whites left in the oceans.

Buy at AllPosters.com

While Great Whites have been known to attack and kill humans, in most cases it's a case of mistaken identity. The GW sees a surfer on the surface of the water and thinks it's a seal and attacks. In many cases, the GW leaves after the first bite because humans aren't its natural prey and we don't contain enough body fat for their tastes.

Like one of the videos say below, "Eating a human is to a GW like lima beans are to some humans'. We simply aren't to their tastes.

Some scientists also believe that the attacks that aren't fatal may be due to the fact that the victim escapes before they can be consumed. It's known that the GW likes to deliver a lethal bite and will then wait for its victim to bleed out and become too weak to defend itself or die all together.

In the case of humans, after the initial bite, the victim is often rescued from the water before they have a chance to die or weaken from blood loss.

In any case, more people are struck by lightning and die or are fatally wounded by a dog than get attacked and killed by a Great White. The GW is a fearsome predator, but they aren't the fabled man killers that the movie Jaws depicts. They have a right to live just like any other creature, including ourselves.

Buy at AllPosters.com

Below you'll find an assortment of videos that I handpicked for this site. There are five all together, and all of them are simply amazing. If you don't feel like reading, these videos are the best solution. You can learn about the Great White and see its awesome power demonstrated.

My favorite of the bunch is the one where they show the White jumping out of the water in slow motion. The sheer power of this animal is amazing to behold.