Table of contentsIntroductionConclusionResources“There is nothing in the sea that this fish would be afraid of. Other fish run away from bigger things. It's 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 Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay― Peter Benchley, JawsIntroductionThe great white shark has been one of the most ruthless oceanic predatory fish species for nearly 20 million years. The legendary great white shark is much scarier in our imagination than in reality. It is widely accepted within the scientific community that the population of great white sharks is declining worldwide, as they are threatened by both hunting and habitat loss across much of their natural range. . To address the subject of the great white shark, this essay analyzes its characteristics, its adaptations to hunting, its population and its 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 long and weigh between 1,150 and 1,700 pounds. Great white sharks are not all white, they are gray and blue with a white belly. Great white sharks have around 240 teeth spread out in up to five rows, 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, giving them the ability to maintain body heat over a wide range of temperatures, but maintaining them requires a lot of energy and food. Great white sharks maintain their muscles at very high temperatures and recycle heat from their warm muscles to the rest of their bodies, which helps them swim more efficiently. The great white shark is primarily an inhabitant of cool temperate waters on continental and island shelves. It appears to prefer areas with rocky bottoms, but has been recorded on sandy bottoms and coral reefs as well as in deep waters. It was once thought that great white sharks did not enter kelp forests, but this turned out to be false: not only do they enter kelp forests, but they apparently feed there as well. 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 spot a target, they use acceleration to ram their prey while biting it. When teeth fall out, they are quickly replaced by those in the row behind them. These sharp, jagged 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 grow, they feed more exclusively on marine mammals, such as sea lions, seals and small whales. They even have organs capable of detecting tiny electromagnetic fields generated by animals. The great white shark sits at the top of the food chain and poses few threats in the ocean. Only orcas and larger sharks may pose a risk. The only other risk to the great white shark is human interaction. They are sometimes caught accidentally in fishing nets or intentionally sought by a sport fisherman. Theirjaws and their fins are sold for considerable sums. Good news for sharks and perhaps not so good news for seals. In a recent report, the population of great white sharks is increasing in the ocean off the eastern United States and Canada. Scientists believe that the abundance of prey and conservation efforts that prevent the hunting of great white sharks have helped play a role in the population increase. The species is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “Tobey Curtis, one of the government scientists who worked on the study, said in an interview that his team could only capture trends in shark abundance and that the study could not be used. estimate the total number of sharks in the northwest Atlantic region, which extends from the eastern seaboard of the United States. "We don't know how much of the total population we are documenting," he said. But Curtis said the findings suggest "optimistic prospects" for the recovery of the species, which is an apex predator and one of the oceans' largest fish. largest dataset of great white sharks ever compiled in the region The results were based on data going back about 200 years, including population surveys, fishermen's logbooks and newspaper clippings recording sightings of great white sharks. these elusive creatures. Extrapolating from various data, the scientists said that during much of the 1970s and 1980s, shark abundance in the Northwest Atlantic was on average about 70 percent lower than in 1961, the year they chose to take as a reference. They hypothesized that the decline was due to a growing commercial shark fishing industry, which harvested their fins and jaws for use in food and traditional medicine. The decline was reversed in the 1990s after conservation measures were introduced, 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 studied, shark abundance was 31 percent lower than it was in 1961, Curtis said. In a separate paper also published in PLOS ONE, researchers found that the population of great white sharks is likely growing in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. The group, led by George Burgess, director of the Florida Shark Research Program, put the total population of great white sharks along the California coast at more than 2,000 individuals and likely growing. (Carcharodon carcharias), tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) and bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas). While sharks kill fewer than 20 people a year, their own numbers suffer greatly at the hands of man. » “The great white shark has been implicated in some of the most frightening attacks on humans. In 1985, Australian Shirley Ann Durdin was torn in two and then devoured by a great white shark. Rodney Fox had his lungs and stomach torn apart and required more than 360 stitches during an attack in 1963. In 2008, Dave Martin was killed in California when a Great White snatched him the legs. The great white shark surpasses all other sharks in terms of the number of shark attacks. As of May 2008, the Great White had recorded 238 unprovoked attacks and 95 boat attacks, resulting in 65 deaths; this far exceeds the second tiger shark (88.