Great White Shark

Carcharodon carcharias

Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is a species in the genus Carcharodon, family Lamnidae, order Lamniformes.

Scientific classification

Description

The great white is the largest predatory fish, with reliably measured individuals reaching about six metres. It is counter-shaded — slate grey above, white below — and has a conical snout and triangular, coarsely serrated upper teeth adapted to cutting through blubber and cartilage.

Like other lamnid sharks it is regionally endothermic, using a countercurrent heat exchanger to keep the swimming muscles, viscera, eyes and brain above ambient temperature. This allows sustained activity in water far colder than most fish tolerate.

Distribution and behaviour

Coastal and offshore waters worldwide in temperate and subtropical seas. Individuals undertake very long migrations: white sharks tagged in California have been tracked to a mid-Pacific region between Baja California and Hawaii, and one tagged in South Africa reached Western Australia and returned.

Predation on pinnipeds is typically a vertical ambush from below, sometimes carrying the shark clear of the water. Younger animals feed mainly on fish and rays; the shift to marine mammals comes with size.

Relationship with humans

Attacks on people are rare and rarely fatal, and are generally thought to reflect investigatory biting rather than predation. The species' cultural prominence is enormously out of proportion to the risk it poses.

Conservation

Vulnerable, with population declines driven by targeted fishing, bycatch in gill nets, and the historical shark-control programmes of some coastal states.

References

• Rigby, C. L. et al. (2019). Carcharodon carcharias. IUCN Red List assessment 3855.
• Klimley, A. P. and Ainley, D. G., eds. (1996). *Great White Sharks: The Biology of Carcharodon

carcharias*.