THE GREAT WHITE. “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

ANCESTRY. Sharks have been around since the dinosaurs but the sharks then were a lot different than they are now. Megalodons are the Great White’s ancestor and were believed to live 28 to 1.5 million years ago. Something out of a nightmare, the Megalodon was feet long with a jaw width of six feet!

DIET. Great Whites are carnivorous and eat seals, sea lions, dolphins, and whales. The sharks hunt by staying close to the surface and swimming straight up from below to avoid being seen.

HOLLYWOOD. Ahhh! Shark! Shark! Hollywood loves to make movies about blood-craving beasts but contrary to belief, sharks do not eat humans. Rarely a shark will attack and tear a limb off but they do not eat humans. TV shows and movies make sharks look like horrible creatures for the sake of viewers.

POPULATION. Like most mammals these days, The Great White is endangered. There are only 3,500 Great Whites left in the world! It’s important to keep the sharks safe because animals at the top of the ocean food chain play a huge role in the ocean’s ecosystem.

BABIES! Shark babies, or technically shark pups, are completely independent from their mothers. As soon as they are born, they’re on their own, unlike human babies who can’t even pick up a pencil.

SENSES. Sharks can hear a fish in the water from a mile away. They can smell one drop of blood in a million drops of water. Many people think sharks are blind but they can actually see very well and like cats, they can see in the dark too. Ever heard the saying ‘a sixth sense’ ? Sharks have seven! They can feel electric fields and sense water pressure.

NICKNAMES. The Carcharodon carcharias is also known as the: Great White White Pointer White Shark White Death And of course JAWS!

THE WORST SHARK ATTACK. In 1945 a military ship was hit by two torpedoes from a Japanese Submarine, causing the ship to split in half, leaving 900 men floating in the Pacific. The next day sharks started swimming up and attacking the men from under, leaving the men waiting to be brutally attacked. 579 men dead…some chewed to pieces.

SOUL SURFER. Soul surfer is a true story about Bethany Hamilton who was a hardcore surfer until a shark bit her arm off and caused her to lose 60% of her blood. She amazingly recovered and eventually she started to surf again, becoming a role model for many other young surfers.

TAIL-SLAPPING. Great Whites will rarely fight each other for food. Innstead, when two sharks both want the same meal, they have a friednly tail-slapping contest. Both sharks swim past each other while slapping the surface of the water with their tails and whoever slaps the surface the most times wins the meal.

AQUARIUMS. You have probably noticed the absence of Great Whites in aquariums. This is because the sharks don’t cooperate. A Great White was once taken to an aquarium for a few days but started to continually hit its nose against the glass; it had to be released back into the sea.

HOLY SHARK. The biggest shark every spotted was caught off of Prince Edward Island in It was 20 feet long.

KILLER WHALES VS. GREAT WHITES. When you think ocean monster, you think shark, but killer whales are actually more dangerous than Great Whites. A Great White is no match for a killer whale; the whales travel in packs and are much stronger and faster than sharks. Watch out for Killer whales because they have been known to hunt and kill Great Whites!

HUNGRY? Great Whites can go for months without eating, however, in one year they consume approximately 11 tons of food!

TEETH. A Great White may use and lose more than one thousand teeth in it’s lifetime. Whites have layers of teeth, each tooth around 3 inches long.

WORLDWIDE. Great Whites live along coasts of all continents except Antartica.

BATTLE SCARS. Great Whites often have scratches on their snouts from their pretty fighting back.

AFTER MARRIAGE. Great Whites do not start breeding until they are at least 20 years old.

TOUGH LITTLE GUYS. Young Great Whites eat leopard seals.