Topic > The great white shark: ruthless predator of the ocean

IndexIntroductionConclusionResources“There is nothing in the sea that this fish can fear. Other fish flee from bigger things. This is their instinct. But this fish doesn't run away from anything. He's not afraid." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay― Peter Benchley, JawsIntroductionThe great white shark has been one of the most ruthless ocean predatory fish species for nearly 20 million years. The legendary Great White Shark is much more fearsome in our imagination than in reality. It is a widely held belief within the scientific community that great white shark populations are declining worldwide as they are threatened by both hunting and habitat loss across much of their natural range. To discuss the topic of the Great White Shark, this essay analyzes its characteristics, hunting adaptations, population and shark attacks. The average lifespan of a Great White Shark is 25 years. Female great white sharks are larger than males. They average 14 to 15 feet in length and weigh between 1,150 and 1,700 pounds. Great white sharks are not all white, they are gray and blue with white stomachs. Great white sharks have around 240 teeth arranged in five rows and their bite is extremely powerful. It can exert a pressure of 2,000 pounds per square inch. Great white sharks have enormous livers that can weigh up to 500 pounds. They use their liver to store energy and can go months without eating. Great white sharks are warm-blooded, this gives them the ability to maintain body heat over a wide range of temperatures but requires a lot of energy and food to maintain it. The great white shark keeps its muscles at very high temperatures and recycles heat from its warm muscles to the rest of its body, helping it swim more efficiently. The great white shark is primarily an inhabitant of cool, temperate waters on continental and island shelves. It seems to prefer areas with rocky bottoms, but has been reported on sandy bottoms and on coral reefs as well as in the deep sea. It was previously thought that great white sharks do not enter kelp forests, but this has been proven false: they not only enter kelp forests, but apparently also feed there. Great white sharks use their speed and coloration to help them hunt. They search for prey on the ocean surface while swimming below. Once they locate a target, they use a burst of speed to simultaneously slam into their prey and bite it. As teeth fall out, they are quickly replaced by those in the row behind them. These sharp, serrated teeth can be devastating. A single, large bite can be fatal. When great white sharks are young, they feed on smaller prey, such as fish and rays. As they get larger, they feed exclusively on marine mammals, such as sea lions, seals and small whales. They even have organs that can sense the tiny electromagnetic fields generated by animals. The great white shark is at the top of the food chain and poses few threats in the ocean. Only killer whales and larger sharks pose a risk. The only other risk to the great white shark is human interaction. Sometimes they are accidentally caught in fishing nets or intentionally sought by a sport fisherman. Their jaws and fins are sold for considerable sums of money. Good news for sharks and perhaps not so good news for seals. In a recent report, the population of great white shark is increasing in the oceanoff the eastern United States and Canada. Scientists believe the abundance of prey and conservation efforts that prevent hunting of great white sharks have helped play a role in the population increase. The species is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. to estimate the total number of sharks in the northwestern Atlantic region, which extends from the east coast of the United States. “We don't know what portion of the total population we're documenting,” he said. But Curtis said the findings suggest an "optimistic outlook" for the recovery of the species, which is an apex predator and one of the largest fish in the oceans. The authors described their study as based on the largest white shark dataset ever compiled in the region. The findings were based on data dating back about 200 years, including population surveys, fishermen's logs and newspaper clippings recording sightings of these elusive creatures. Extrapolating different data, the scientists said that throughout much of the 1970s and 1980s, shark abundance in the Northwest Atlantic averaged about 70 percent lower than in 1961, the baseline year. They hypothesized that the decline was caused by a growing commercial shark fishing industry, which harvested their fins and jaws for use in food and folk medicine. The decline was reversed in the 1990s, after the introduction of conservation measures, including a 1997 federal law banning the hunting of great white sharks. “Since the protections have been put in place, the population seems to have started to recover,” Curtis said. In 2009, the most recent year the study was conducted, shark abundance was 31 percent lower than in 1961, Curtis said. In a separate paper also published in PLOS ONE, researchers found that the great white shark population is likely growing in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. The group, led by George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research, pegged the entire population of great white sharks along the California coast at more than 2,000 and likely rising. "" Three species are responsible for most human attacks: the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) and bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas). Although sharks kill fewer than 20 people a year, their numbers suffer greatly at the hands of humans." "The great white shark has been involved in some of the most chilling attacks on humans. In 1985, Australian Shirley Ann Durdin was split in two and then eaten by a great white shark. Rodney Fox had his lungs and stomach ripped open and required more than 360 stitches in a 1963 attack. In 2008, Dave Martin was killed in California when a great white shark chopped off his legs. The great white shark surpasses all other sharks in the number of shark attacks. By May 2008, the Great White had racked up 238 unprovoked attacks and 95 boat attacks, resulting in 65 casualties; this far surpasses the second-placed tiger shark (88 attacks and 28 deaths) and the third-placed bull shark (77 attacks and 23 deaths).” Are humans particularly delicious to great white sharks? According to scientists who studied the stomach contents of these sharks. Humans, due to their muscular content, are not a good meal for the great white shark, because they crave fatty blubber. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Conclusion As seen from In the essay,.