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The great white shark has a robust large conical-shaped snout. It has almost the same size upper and lower lobes on the tail fin (like most mackerel sharks, but unlike most other sharks).
Great white sharks display countershading, having a white underside and a grey dorsal area (sometimes in a brown or blue shade) that gives an overall "mottled" appearance. The coloration makes it difficult for prey to spot the shark because it breaks up the shark's outline when seen from a lateral perspective. When viewed from above, the darker shade blends in with the sea and when seen from below casts a minimal silhouette against the sunlight.
Great white sharks, like many other sharks, have rows of teeth behind the main ones, allowing any that break off to be rapidly replaced. A great white shark's teeth are serrated and when the shark bites it will shake its head side to side and the teeth will act as a saw and tear off large chunks of flesh. Great white sharks often swallow their own broken off teeth along with chunks of their prey's flesh.
Size
A typical adult great white shark measures 4–4.8 metres (13–16 ft) and has a mass of 680–1,100 kilograms (1,500–2,400 lb), females generally being larger than males. The great white shark's "normal" maximum size is about 6 m (20 ft), with a "normal" maximum weight of about 1,900 kg (4,200 lb).
The maximum size of the great white shark has been hotly debated. Richard Ellis and John E. McCosker, both academic shark experts, devote a full chapter in their book, Great White Shark (1991), to analysing various accounts of extreme size.
For several decades, many ichthyological works, as well as the Guinness Book of World Records, listed two great white sharks as the largest individuals caught: an 11 m (36 ft) great white captured in Southern Australian waters near Port Fairy in the 1870s, and an 11.3 m (37 ft) shark trapped in a herring weir in New Brunswick, Canada in the 1930s. While this was the commonly accepted maximum size, reports of 7.5–10-metre (25–33 ft) great white sharks were common and often deemed credible.
Great white shark caught off Hualien County, Taiwan on May 14, 1997. It was reportedly almost 7 metres (23 ft) in length, with a mass of 2,500 kilograms (5,500 lb).Some researchers questioned the reliability of both measurements, noting they were much larger than any other accurately-reported great white shark. The New Brunswick shark may have been a misidentified basking shark, as both sharks have similar body shapes. The question of the Port Fairy shark was settled in the 1970s, when J.E. Reynolds examined the shark's jaws and "found that the Port Fairy shark was of the order of 5 m (17 ft) in length and suggested that a mistake had been made in the original record, in 1870, of the shark's length.
The largest specimen Ellis and McCosker endorse as reliably measured was 6.4 m (21 ft) long, caught in Cuban waters in 1945; though confident in their opinion, Ellis and McCosker note other experts have argued this individual might have been a few feet shorter. The unverified weight reported for the shark from Cuba was 3,270 kilograms (7,200 lb). There have since been claims of larger great white sharks, but, as Ellis and McCosker note, verification is often lacking and these extraordinarily large great white sharks have, upon examination, all proved under the 6.1–6.4 m (20–21 ft) limit. For example, a much-publicized female great white said to be 7.13 m (23.4 ft) was fished in Malta in 1987 by Alfredo Cutajar. In their book, Ellis and McCosker agree this shark seemed to be larger than average, but they did not endorse the 7.13 m (23.4 ft) measurement. In the years since, experts eventually found reason to doubt the claim, due in no small part to conflicting accounts offered by Cutajar and others. A BBC photo analyst concluded that even "allowing for error ... the shark is concluded to be in the 5.6 m range (18.3 ft) range and in no way approaches the 7 m (23 ft) reported by Abela." (as in original)
According to the Canadian Shark Research Centre, the largest accurately measured great white shark was a female caught in August 1988 at Prince Edward Island off the Canadian (North Atlantic) coast and measured 6.1 m (20 ft). The shark was caught by David McKendrick, a local resident from Alberton, West Prince. McKendrick and a man by the name of David Livingstone have the first and second biggest teeth from this shark.
The question of maximum weight is complicated by the unresolved question of whether or not to account for the weight of a shark's recent meals when weighing the shark itself. With a single bite, a great white can take in up to 14 kg (31 lb) of flesh, and can gorge on several hundred kilograms or pounds of food.
Ellis and McCosker write in regards to modern great white sharks that "it is likely that [Great White] sharks can weigh as much as 2 tons", but also note that the largest recent scientifically measured examples weigh in at about 2 metric tons (2.2 short tons). Other large, predatory sharks may grow to comparable lengths as the Great White, including the Tiger shark[12], the Greenland Shark[13] and the Pacific sleeper shark[14]. However, the Great White is the most massive predatory shark to exceed 6 metres (20 ft) and is the only one known to weigh more than 2 metric tons.
The largest great white shark recognized by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) is one landed by Alf Dean in south Australian waters in 1959, weighing 1,208 kg (2,660 lb). Several larger great white sharks caught by anglers have since been verified, but were later disallowed from formal recognition by IGFA monitors for rules violations.
Great white sharks display countershading, having a white underside and a grey dorsal area (sometimes in a brown or blue shade) that gives an overall "mottled" appearance. The coloration makes it difficult for prey to spot the shark because it breaks up the shark's outline when seen from a lateral perspective. When viewed from above, the darker shade blends in with the sea and when seen from below casts a minimal silhouette against the sunlight.
Great white sharks, like many other sharks, have rows of teeth behind the main ones, allowing any that break off to be rapidly replaced. A great white shark's teeth are serrated and when the shark bites it will shake its head side to side and the teeth will act as a saw and tear off large chunks of flesh. Great white sharks often swallow their own broken off teeth along with chunks of their prey's flesh.
Size
A typical adult great white shark measures 4–4.8 metres (13–16 ft) and has a mass of 680–1,100 kilograms (1,500–2,400 lb), females generally being larger than males. The great white shark's "normal" maximum size is about 6 m (20 ft), with a "normal" maximum weight of about 1,900 kg (4,200 lb).
The maximum size of the great white shark has been hotly debated. Richard Ellis and John E. McCosker, both academic shark experts, devote a full chapter in their book, Great White Shark (1991), to analysing various accounts of extreme size.
For several decades, many ichthyological works, as well as the Guinness Book of World Records, listed two great white sharks as the largest individuals caught: an 11 m (36 ft) great white captured in Southern Australian waters near Port Fairy in the 1870s, and an 11.3 m (37 ft) shark trapped in a herring weir in New Brunswick, Canada in the 1930s. While this was the commonly accepted maximum size, reports of 7.5–10-metre (25–33 ft) great white sharks were common and often deemed credible.
Great white shark caught off Hualien County, Taiwan on May 14, 1997. It was reportedly almost 7 metres (23 ft) in length, with a mass of 2,500 kilograms (5,500 lb).Some researchers questioned the reliability of both measurements, noting they were much larger than any other accurately-reported great white shark. The New Brunswick shark may have been a misidentified basking shark, as both sharks have similar body shapes. The question of the Port Fairy shark was settled in the 1970s, when J.E. Reynolds examined the shark's jaws and "found that the Port Fairy shark was of the order of 5 m (17 ft) in length and suggested that a mistake had been made in the original record, in 1870, of the shark's length.
The largest specimen Ellis and McCosker endorse as reliably measured was 6.4 m (21 ft) long, caught in Cuban waters in 1945; though confident in their opinion, Ellis and McCosker note other experts have argued this individual might have been a few feet shorter. The unverified weight reported for the shark from Cuba was 3,270 kilograms (7,200 lb). There have since been claims of larger great white sharks, but, as Ellis and McCosker note, verification is often lacking and these extraordinarily large great white sharks have, upon examination, all proved under the 6.1–6.4 m (20–21 ft) limit. For example, a much-publicized female great white said to be 7.13 m (23.4 ft) was fished in Malta in 1987 by Alfredo Cutajar. In their book, Ellis and McCosker agree this shark seemed to be larger than average, but they did not endorse the 7.13 m (23.4 ft) measurement. In the years since, experts eventually found reason to doubt the claim, due in no small part to conflicting accounts offered by Cutajar and others. A BBC photo analyst concluded that even "allowing for error ... the shark is concluded to be in the 5.6 m range (18.3 ft) range and in no way approaches the 7 m (23 ft) reported by Abela." (as in original)
According to the Canadian Shark Research Centre, the largest accurately measured great white shark was a female caught in August 1988 at Prince Edward Island off the Canadian (North Atlantic) coast and measured 6.1 m (20 ft). The shark was caught by David McKendrick, a local resident from Alberton, West Prince. McKendrick and a man by the name of David Livingstone have the first and second biggest teeth from this shark.
The question of maximum weight is complicated by the unresolved question of whether or not to account for the weight of a shark's recent meals when weighing the shark itself. With a single bite, a great white can take in up to 14 kg (31 lb) of flesh, and can gorge on several hundred kilograms or pounds of food.
Ellis and McCosker write in regards to modern great white sharks that "it is likely that [Great White] sharks can weigh as much as 2 tons", but also note that the largest recent scientifically measured examples weigh in at about 2 metric tons (2.2 short tons). Other large, predatory sharks may grow to comparable lengths as the Great White, including the Tiger shark[12], the Greenland Shark[13] and the Pacific sleeper shark[14]. However, the Great White is the most massive predatory shark to exceed 6 metres (20 ft) and is the only one known to weigh more than 2 metric tons.
The largest great white shark recognized by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) is one landed by Alf Dean in south Australian waters in 1959, weighing 1,208 kg (2,660 lb). Several larger great white sharks caught by anglers have since been verified, but were later disallowed from formal recognition by IGFA monitors for rules violations.
