Javier Mendoza  /  The Animals  /  Ocean
Sharks · Ocean

Great White Shark

Carcharodon carcharias

Everything about the great white is bigger than the myth lets on: it lives past seventy, crosses oceans, and is far more at risk from us than we are from it.

A great white shark in close profile, one dark eye meeting the camera, dappled sunlight rolling across its bronze back in deep blue water.
Eye to Eye · South Australia · © Javier MendozaOrder this print
~20 ft
Maximum length; adults are usually 11 to 16 ft
NOAA Fisheries
~25 mph
Burst speed when attacking
Monterey Bay Aquarium
70+ yrs
Lifespan, from growth-band studies of Atlantic sharks
Hamady et al. 2014
Vulnerable
IUCN Red List; protected in California since 1994
IUCN · CDFW

The animal

Great whites are warm-bodied, which lets them hunt in cold water and cover huge distances; tagged sharks swim from California to Hawaii and from South Africa to Australia. Adults hunt seals and sea lions from below, often in a single rush; juveniles live on fish and rays in shallow water.

Their teeth are serrated triangles replaced throughout life. The famous bite is usually a test; most encounters with people are a single investigative bite, which is why the majority are survived.

Where they are photographed

The Neptune Islands off South Australia and Guadalupe Island off Mexico are the two classic places to meet adult great whites in clear water. Southern California's beaches are a nursery for juveniles, and adults gather around the Channel Islands and the Farallones each autumn.

The species is listed as Vulnerable. California has protected white sharks since 1994, and the population off the US West Coast appears to be slowly recovering, one of the few good news stories among big sharks.

A longer guide to this species, with what it means for Southern California, is on My Clean Ocean →  ·  Field story: read it →

In the collection

3 frames · prints from 12″ to 40″+
A great white shark in close profile, one dark eye meeting the camera, dappled sunlight rolling across its bronze back in deep blue water.
Eye to EyeSouth Australia

A great white draws close enough to fill the frame — dappled light rolling over her back, one black eye holding the lens. Apex calm, met at arm's length.

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A great white shark in full profile banking through deep blue open water, shafts of sunlight falling behind it.
The ApexMexico

Nothing above it, nothing it fears — a great white banks through the light shafts of the open Pacific, every scar on its flank a chapter of a long life at the top.

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A great white shark gliding over a kelp-covered reef in clear blue water, a trevally riding just above its back.
The EscortSouth Australia

A great white patrols the reef line at the Neptune Islands with a trevally riding shotgun — the little fish borrows the giant's shadow, and the giant doesn't seem to mind. From the expedition in the story 'Great Whites of the Neptune Islands.'

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Museum-quality prints from 16-bit masters — metal, canvas or archival fine-art paper, printed in the USA.
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Questions people ask

How big can a great white shark get?

The largest reliably measured great whites approach 20 feet and more than 4,000 pounds. Most adults are 11 to 16 feet.

How long do great white sharks live?

At least 70 years. A 2014 study that counted growth bands in the vertebrae of Atlantic white sharks found males over 70 and females around 40, far longer than earlier estimates.

Are great white sharks endangered?

They are listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. California has protected them since 1994, and the US West Coast population appears to be slowly recovering.

Sources
  1. NOAA Fisheries species profile: White shark
  2. IUCN Red List, Carcharodon carcharias
  3. Hamady, Natanson, Skomal & Thorrold (2014), PLOS ONE: vertebral bomb-radiocarbon ageing of white sharks
  4. California Department of Fish and Wildlife: white shark protection (1994)
  5. Monterey Bay Aquarium white shark research
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