What Do Great White Sharks Eat

I have a real fascination with sharks and I have written quite a few posts about sharks which you can have a look through here - index of shark posts. I also promised more "fact" posts so I thought that I would combine the two to put together todays post.

Great white sharks are the biggest and most well respected of the sharks. They are a fierce predator and many stories have been shared at the local pub about the close encounters with these awesome animals. They are aggressive animals and the sight of a great white shark feeding is an unforgettable experience.

What do Great White Sharks Eat
Great white sharks locate their prey with smell and sound and they can smell their prey from kilometers away. Great white sharks typically stay below their prey and ambush them, taking them by complete surprise. Great white sharks are carnivorous (meat eater) and feed on animals with high fat content. Primarily the great white sharks diet is made up of :

• fish
• tuna
• stingrays
  
• smaller sharks
  
• porpoises
  
• dolphins
  
• whales
  
• seals
  
• fur seals
  
• sea lions.
  

Great white sharks have also been known to eat sea turtles. I found it interesting that while great white sharks will attack sea otters and penguins they very rarely eat them. Great white sharks will also eat pig carcasses if they find their way to the ocean.

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Where do sharks live

Sharks hold a certain fascination for many people and I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of people visiting my shark posts so far. I have been watching some of the shark week on the discovery channel lately and I thought I would share some of what I have learned.

Where do sharks live?
Contrary to popular belief sharks are only found in 30% of the world oceans making 70% shark free. However, most coastal areas will be home to at least one species of shark. Research shows that sharks cannot live in water deeper than 1500 meters and this makes them susceptible to overfishing.

Great White Sharks are found in almost all coastal waters with temperatures from 12 and 24° C. There are large concentrations in Australia, South Africa and California.

Tiger sharks can be found close to the coast in almost all tropical and sub-tropical waters and will sometimes stray into temperate and cool waters.

Mako sharks are found in almost all tropical and temperate waters worldwide.

Interesting shark facts

• The bull shark is well known for its ability to live in both fresh and salt water - imagine the surprise if one made its way into your local bass lake!
• In the 16th century sharks were usually referred to as "sea dogs"
• Sharks never stop swimming, even to sleep, otherwise they would fall to the sea floor.
• Black-tip reef sharks have swum the Suez canal to colonize the Mediterranean Sea.
• While snorkeling in Australia, Luke Tresoglavic was bitten by a small wobbegong that didn't let go. He had to swim to the shore and drive to get help with the shark still attached to his leg.
• During an experiment a scientist plugged on nostril of a shark - it swam in a circle.

Fishing
Sharks are susceptible to overfishing and many species are now on the endangered list. As you might expect sharks are very good fighters and can grow to enormous sizes. Some sharks are also good eating. However the fact that they are under so much fishing pressure and can be downright dangerous near a boat means that you should think carefully before purposely targeting sharks.

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Kayak and great white shark

If you are a regular reader of my blog you will probably remember the sharks love post, which even though is a hoax is still an impressive story! In that powerpoint/video there is one of the most famous pictures running around the Internet - The man in his kayak and the great white shark behind him. If you haven't seen it here is the picture I am talking about:


Is the great white and kayak picture a photoshop fake?
This is the proper definition photo (not the compressed image going around via email which looks fake) and it looks genuine enough so lets look at the facts.

This photo is indeed genuine and was taken from the magazine National Geographic. It was part of an article by Michael C. Scholl and Thomas P. Peschak who were studying sharks without the use of engine noise. This is what the authors had to say about the incident:

Although we had extensively tested the sharks' reactions to an empty kayak and had observed no signs of aggression, this gave us little comfort as we eyed a great white heading straight for us, albeit slowly. Just a metre or so from the craft it veered off, circled and slowly approached from behind. It did this several times, occasionally lifting its head out of the water to get a better look. Then it lost interest, and as it continued on its way we were able to follow a short distance behind. Once we'd come to terms with having nothing between ourselves and a four-metre shark except a thin layer of plastic, our kayak made an ideal research platform for observing great white behaviour in shallow water.

If you are still a little skeptical then I have another great picture that will hopefully dispel all doubts.


Amazing as it is even as a fisherman you would not catch me dead in that kayak no matter what the researchers say! Great whites are scary enough in a full sized boat and a plastic kayak just wouldn't cut it!

Want to tell me what you think - Please leave a comment.

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Fishing Video of the week - Shark (great whites)

Now firstly I must say that shark fishing isn't my thing. That is not to say I haven't caught my fair share of sharks over the years, but where I am from sharks are a pain not an angling target. I remember my old man pulling up a 3-400 pound (estimate) shark in our 14 foot boat and to say we were a little bit scared when the thing surfaced is probably an understatement.

Having said all that sharks fight well and some of the smaller specimens can taste fairly good too with the added bonus of no bones!

This video focuses on the great white sharks, which are totally protected in Australia and are a very dangerous fish. Remember to only target sharks if you have some experience (and a decent boat). Enjoy the video

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