Scientific name: Carcharodon carcharias

Common names: Great white, White pointer, Blue pointer White shark, White death or Tommy shark

Habitat: Very shallow water inshore, to open ocean and oceanic islands, 0 - 1300 meters usually seen around rocky reefs near colonies of pray.

Known Predators: Only real predators are humans.

Measurements: Born: 110 - 160 cm

Males: 350 - 400 cm

Females: 450 - 500 cm

Max:  600 cm

Identification: Heavy, long-snouted spindle-shaped body, long gill slits, large first dorsal fin with dark free rear tip, tiny second dorsal and anal fins, strong keels in caudal penduncle and crescent-shaped tail. Huge flat, triangular, serrated teeth. Very black eye. Very sharp colour change on flanks from greyish back to white underside. Black tip inderneath pectoral fins, usually a black spot where rear edge joins body.

Behaviour: Intelegent and inquisitive shark with highly complex social behaviour. Very effective predator, may breach out of the water when attacking pray. Satalite and genetic studies indicate that these sharks are highly migratory, crossing ocean basins.

Biology: Warm-blooded, maintaining constant high body temperature even in cold water. Feeds on wide range of prey, from smaller fishes to large marine mammals when mature. Litters of two to ten pups are nourished by unfertilised eggs during ~12 month gestation at two or three year intervals.

Diet: Rays, Tuna, smaller sharks, Dolphins, Porpoises, Whale carcasses, pinnipeds such as Seals, Fur Seals and Sea lions and sometimes Sea Turtles.

IUCN Conservation Status: Endangered

Where to dive with them: Gansbaai, South Africa

Distribution: