Great White Shark

Great White Shark

They are  also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death

1. They are in the same class as all sharks and rays (Chondrichthyes) -this group is different from other fish as their skeleton is made from cartilage instead of bone. 

2. Using their powerful tails to propel them, these sharks can move through the water at up to 24 km per hour. Their mouths are lined with up to 300 serrated triangular teeth arranged in several rows.

3. The Great White Shark, or Carcharodon carcharias, belongs to a group species that have existed for over 350 millions years.

4. Contrary to what is espoused in movies like Jaws, sharks are not man eaters.

5. Great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) are top order predators thatmay reach lengths of almost 7 metres.

6. Great white sharks are found in warm coastal waters all over the world. Orcas (killer whales) are their only ocean predators.

7. The Great White Shark is the largest predatory shark, and is probably the most well-known 
and feared shark. The Great White Shark is gray or bluish above and white below.

8. The largest Great Whites can reach lengths of 22 feet and weigh up to 5,000 pounds. Most are between 13 and 16 feet and weigh 1,500-2,400 pounds.

9. The Great White has massive teeth, which are positioned in rows and serrated. When the Great White attacks, it bites its prey and shakes it head back and forth. The serrated teeth act as a saw and literally tear the victim apart. The Great White Shark often swallows many of its own teeth in an attack.

10. The Great White Shark normally feeds on fish, seals, dolphins, porpoises, otters, and turtles.

11. It is thought to locate its prey by electrosense and by smell. Like all sharks, Great Whites have special pores called Ampullae of Lorenzini, which enable them to detect the electromagnetic fields radiated by moving organisms. Great Whites can detect voltage as small as one half billionth of a volt.

12. Orcas (killer whales) are their only ocean predators. They may live 70 years or longer, making them the longest lived cartilaginous (a skeleton made of flexible cartilage) fish known to man.

13. They may live 70 years or longer, making them the longest lived cartilaginous (a skeleton made of flexible cartilage) fish known to man. 

14. Female great white sharks give birth to a single live baby, called a pup, and they can grow up to be enormous! Some may grow up to 21 feet long and 2500 pounds. The largest great white shark ever captured was more than 26 feet long and 7328 pounds! That’s about the size of a moving truck! 

15. As great whites grow, it is thought that males will change into females so they can give birth and raise the population of great white sharks. Interestingly, most of the great whites caught in the wild are female.

16. Great white sharks have many amazing abilities. They have a sharp sense of smell that allows them to detect a single drop of blood in a million gallons of water.  Great White Sharks can detect 1 drop of blood in 100 litres of water! This means they can detect small quantities of blood up to 5 km away.

17. Once they have eaten a large meal such as a sea lion or seal, they can survive for a whole month without any food. However, they will also eat fish and seabirds.

18. If one of their jagged, triangular teeth breaks off during a feeding, it will grow back just as good as new. Great whites must always be swimming of a speed of at least 2 miles per hour in order to receive enough oxygen to breathe. Many of us have never seen a great white shark because it is almost impossible to keep one alive in captivity for longer than a couple of weeks.

19. The shortfi n mako is the fastest shark and can swim at 20 mph (32km/h).

20. Sharks range in size from 8 inches to 45 feet in length.

21. Sharks have a skeleton made of cartilage, not bone. 

22. Sharks can replace lost teeth in as little as 24 hours and may lose thousands of teeth in their lifetime.

23. A special tissue layer in the eye that acts like a mirror bouncing light through the eye and improving a shark’s vision at night and in low light.

24. Sharks reproduce by laying eggs, giving birth to live young or a combination of both. Some species of sharks lay eggs that have hooks to attach to underwater plants. 

25. Other shark species bear live young, which are fully formed. The pups are not cared for by their parents and are ready to hunt for their own food as soon as they are born. The number of young varies by species. Sand tiger sharks have 1-2 pups while whale sharks can have up to 300 pups at one time.