The Lifestyle of The Great White Shark.

Fearsome, fast moving, with razor sharp teeth, The Great White Shark is one of the 350+ specie of the sharks in the fish family and is related to the ray. They are known as the largest predator and deadliest fish in the entire ocean and are found in most temperate water. The Great White Shark’s scientific name is ‘Caracharadon carcharias’ meaning ‘jagged tooth’.

The Great White Shark is a streamlined swimmer and has a torpedo shaped body with three main fins and one powerful tail. This blood thirsty predator has five gills, a pointed snout, a crescent shaped tail, and two unblinking small, black, glassy eyes which can be rolled back when in attack.

 The Great White Shark has over 3000 teeth and 5-15 rows on either jaw at one time! They are triangular in shape, razor-sharp and up to 7.5cm long!

 The colouration of The Great White Shark is not all white, only the underneath is and on the top it is normally a greyish bluish/ blackish colour.  This makes it easy to hunt and helps them to approach their prey unnoticed as their colouration blends with the dark water.

 The Great White Shark grows to an average of four meters and can weigh more than 3000 kilograms or less. Baby Great White Sharks (pups) can be about two meters or less. The largest Great White Shark on record was about seven meters long!

The Great White Shark lives in most oceans and seas around the world but are most commonly found in temperate waters near to shore and coastlines. In Australia they are most commonly found on the south coast.

 The great White Shark is on the very top of the ocean’s food chain and has a variety of different food sources. All Great Whites are carnivores which mean they are meat eaters. They often hunt along the oceans seabed for lobsters, crabs and other crustations and can swim down to depths more than 100 meters to hunt squid and deep sea fish. Near to the seas surface Great Whites catch turtles and fish and sometimes even sneakily catch sea birds floating on the oceans waves. A Great White Shark can last up to 2 months on one meal if it is satisfied.

Young Great White Sharks do not have as large of a variety to the adults but commonly like to eat rays fish and sharks smaller than themselves. Once the The Great White grows into an adult, they are big enough and strong enough to feed on other food substances such as the Bottlenose Dolphin, sea carrion ( dead animals that they have found floating dead in the water), whales, other sharks, seals and sea lions.

 The Great White Shark does not have many predators because in most cases they are the predator. The Killer Whale, other large carnivorous whales, its own kind The Great White Shark, and most of all, humans prey on the species.

 The Great White Shark is a great swimmer and uses its fins to keep balance while their powerful tail propels them through water. Their average cruising speed is about 3.2 kmph but can reach a very violent speed when attacking prey such as 30 kmph in small vicious bursts. An adult Great White can to its highest and most crazy speed of 60kmph! (rare) 

 The Great White Shark can not stop swimming otherwise it will sink. Along with other sharks they can not swim backwards! The Great White shark is primarily famous for its amazing leaps, flips, and spins into the open air whilst catching prey.

 When another creature tries to attack The Great White Shark, they may kill it first or swim away with great speed. When two Great White Sharks get into a fight (commonly over food) they use their tail and fins to slap each other.

 The Great White Shark does not have a set or confirmed migration route and migrate only when in need of food, different habitat, or when the mother Great White needs to give birth.

 During the male and female Great Whites are mating, the eggs inside the female’s womb are fertilised. Usually the female Great White Shark migrates to warmer waters for the eggs to hatch and to give birth. The eggs hatch while they are still inside the mothers womb and begin to feed on all the unfertilised eggs and sometimes even on each other. After this approximate 18 months period the female Great White Shark is ready to give birth and the pups (baby sharks) are ready to be born (they are already about 1.5meters) (The mother gives birth to 2-14 pups).

 Once the pups are born they already have great hunting skills but they must learn how to survive on their own and move away from the mother as quick as possible, otherwise she may try to eat them! The pups are now on their own in the big blue sea and must be careful as they are an easy target to many creatures. For protection they often live around reefs where there are good food sources (such as squid, rays, and fish) and places to hide. 

 The male Great White Shark matures at about 10 years at the approximate length of 3.6meters, whilst the female matures at about 18 years of age between lengths of about 4.5-5meters long. When they reach their maturing age they are ready to mate and breed their own pups and then the lifecycle starts all over again. If a Great White Shark has lots of scars and scratches it usually means it’s been around for a while because it has been through a lot. The Great White Shark can live for as long a 40 years more or less of battles.

 The Great White Shark has been in earths oceans and seas for about 11 million years or more and have evolved from some of they monstrously gigantic sharks such as the megalodon (giant tooth) that lived millions of years ago and grew to a size of 18 meters plus! This shark is the largest shark that has ever lived!

To us humans The Great White is a threatening, killing, and blood thirsty animal. The best selling novel ‘Jaws’ by Peter Benchley is a perfect example of The Great White Shark, ‘ferocious and man eating’ said by Wikipedia. According to ‘Ocean Link’ dogs kill more humans per year than The Great White has in 100 years!  The Great White Shark is known for only one third to a half of the world wide shark attacks. Humans are the murders not The Great Whites. Each year humans kill thousands to millions of Great Whites along with other shark species. They do this to sharks for their teeth, jaws, flesh (for eating) and just to kill them.

Therefore I think shark finning and catching for food should be banned. I also believe that organisations that send boats out to the ocean should be careful, otherwise leaks of toxin could occur, like in the past. We should think of different ways to reduce the pollution in the water and air. Littering I also a problem, because you never know where one piece of plastic could end up, maybe inside a Great Whites stomach.

I sadly think that this almighty creature’s population will decrease because there is not enough people that stand by my point of view. The amount of people in Japan who fin and kill The Great White Shark is too big for the organisations that are supporting this creature.

The Great White Shark tooth.

The Great White Shark's tooth & the megalodon tooth.