COLORATION
Only the underbelly of the great white shark is actually white; its top surface is gray to blue gray. This is useful in hunting its prey. The great white usually strikes from below and its grayish top coloration blends in with the dark water, enabling it to approach the prey without being seen.

SIZE
Great whites average 12-16 feet long long. The biggest great white shark on record was 23 feet long, weighing about 7,000 pounds. Females are larger than males, as with most sharks. Shark pups can be over 5 feet long at birth.

DIET AND FEEDING HABITS
Young great white sharks eat fish, rays, and other sharks. Adults eat larger prey, including sea lions and seals, small toothed whales (like belugas), otters, and sea turtles. They also eat carrion (dead animals that they have found floating dead in the water).

Great whites do not chew their food. Their teeth rip prey into mouth-sized pieces which are swallowed whole.

A big meal can satisfy a great white for up to 2 months.

TEETH
The great white shark has 3,000 teeth at any one time. They are triangular, serrated (saw-edged), razor-sharp, and up to 3 inches long.

The teeth are located in rows which rotate into use as needed. The first two rows are used in obtaining prey, the other rows rotate into place as they are needed. As teeth are lost, broken, or worn down, they are replaced by new teeth that rotate into place.

SENSES
Shark's primarily use their sense of smell followed by their sensing of electric charges. The shark's other senses, like sensing changes in water pressure, eyesight, and hearing, are less important.

The great white's nostrils can smell one drop of blood in 25 gallons of water. (Shark nostrils are only used for smell and not for breathing, like our nostrils. They breathe using gills, not nostrils.)

The great white can sense tiny electrical discharges in the water. This allows the shark to sense the tiny electrical fields generated by all animals, for example, from muscle contractions. It may also serve to detect magnetic fields which some sharks may use in navigation.

The great white is the only type of shark that will go to the surface and poke its head up out of the water. No one knows exactly why it does this; perhaps it is to see potential prey such as surface-dwelling sea lions.

GREAT WHITE SHARK ATTACKS
Most great white attacks are not fatal. Great whites account for about 1/2 to 1/3 of all 100 annual reported shark attacks. Of these 30-50 great white attacks, only 10-15 people die.

SOCIAL GROUPS
Great whites are usually solitary animals but are occasionally spotted traveling in pairs.

HABITAT
Great white sharks are found near shore along most of the temperate (not very hot and not very cold) coastlines around the world.

DISTRIBUTION
Great white sharks have been observed along the coastlines of California to Alaska, the east coast of the USA and most of the Gulf coast, Hawaii, most of South America, South Africa, Australia (except the north coast), New Zealand, the Mediterranean Sea, West Africa to Scandinavia, Japan, and the eastern coastline of China and southern Russia.


MIGRATION
In the fall, some females migrate to warmer waters (for example, southern California) to give birth.

SWIMMING
Great whites move through the water by their powerful tails. The fins are only used for balance. Their movement is more like an aircraft's flight than other fishes swimming. They average about 2 mph but can swim 15 miles per hour in short bursts.

They swim constantly or they will sink since, like other sharks, they have no gas filled swim bladder to keep them afloat like bony fish do. Like other sharks, their large, oily liver provides some buoyancy (floating ability). but they are still heavier than water and will sink unless they are propelling themselves through the water. Also like other sharks, they cannot swim backwards or even come to an abrupt stop, because their fins are not flexible like other fish. In order to go backwards, they must stop swimming and fall backwards, using gravity to propel themselves backwards.