Great White Shark Habitat

While most commonly found in the more temperate parts of our Planet's oceans, Great White Sharks do sometimes make trips into colder climates, and have been recorded as far North as Alaska and Canada. You will more often find them in and around the warm coastal waters off off of Western South America, Africa, Australia, as well as oceanic islands. Even as a fish, they are warm blooded, but still can't internally regulate temperature and so hardly are found around the equator, where water temperatures usually run higher. Other shark species are not limited by this and some can regularly be found in more cooler climates.

Great White Sharks eat a variety of different sea life, porpoises, seals, and walrus are among them, Where ever great number of these gather, you are sure to find at least a shark or two. They are often found either near the waters' surface or in deep water, down to 820 feet, but are rarely found in between these extremes.

They also like to hang out where there are abrupt boundaries between the land and the ocean, where it there may be deep water all the way or close to the shoreline. They will usually be just under the surface, or at the bottom of channels between islands.

Contrary to what many may think, Great White Sharks are not the mindless killing machines that are seen in the movies. These great behemoths are intelligent, and quite elusive. Out of the !00 or so shark attacks annually, only about a third of these are related to the Great White. Out of these, only a handful are fatal. These sharks are curious creatures, and will occasionally do what is known as sample biting. They will bite a potential prey and then quickly let go if they don't recognize the source as food. While this is little comfort to the injured, it is nice to know that these sharks don't see humans as a food source.

With no reliable data it is hard to know how many Great White Sharks are out there, it is a fact that their numbers are declining. This is largely due to overfishing in their natural habitat, and sharks getting caught in nets. Because the cannot maintain buoyancy on their own and have to constantly keep moving, if caught in a net they are usually dead before they are found. They are also very delicate, even for their size, and are not able to survive in captivity, the longest recorded survival was 198 days at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

You can find these and much more information about Great White Sharks and the rest of the shark species online. There are more in depth look at all sharks, their differing habitats, their dwindling numbers. There is also helpful information on what you can do to help stop their decline. There are even Adventure Vacations, where you will have a once in a life time chance to go Great White watching. With their aerodynamic bodies and powerful tails they have even been know to jump out of the water, (or breach), occasionally.

If you are interested in Sharks then you should really consider a Great White Shark Cage Diving Tour.