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In the Fact File section we bring you a new collection of quick facts each week. (Click on the links below for more facts)

 
 

Great White Sharks - Fact File Special

3301/ Seal Island, in False Bay, South Africa, is just 400m long and 80 metres wide (1,312ft by 262ft) is home to 64,000 South African Fur Seals - the Great White Sharks favourite wintertime prey.

3302/ Contrary to popular belief, biblical Jonah was swallowed by a Great White Shark (GWS), not a whale. It is thought that a shark may have been landed with a man's body inside, prompting the myth to arise.

3303/ Many Greek fishermen call the GWS 'Lamia' - its name in Ancient Greece. Sicilians often still use the old Roman name of 'Pescecane' or 'Dog Fish' in Australia, it called 'White Pointer'.

3304/ The biggest GWS on record was 6 metres (19 feet) long and was caight off Western Ledge, Albany, Australia. Shark pups can be more than 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) long at birth.

3305/ Great White Sharks can live for 30 to 40 years.

3306/ The gestation period for a GWS is more than a year before they give birth.

3307/ Great Whites can have thousands of teeth during their lifetime. These are triangular, serrated, razor-sharp and up to 7.5cm long in rows that 'rotate' into places to replace lost or damaged teeth.

3308/ One 15 foot great white was found with 200 plus crabs in its stomach.

3309/ Great White Sharks have seven senses. They can detect minute electrical charges eg from a seal's muscle contraction - using jelly filled canals in the head, called ampullae of Lorenzini. They can also detect changes in water pressure. They are also able to feel vibrations in the water using a line of canals that go from their head to tails. Called a "lateral line", these canals are filled with water and contain sensory cells with hairs growing out of them. These hairs move when the water vibrates and alerts the shark to potential prey.

3310/ Most scientists agree that Great White Shark attacks on humans ofteb stem from territorial aggression because of a perceived invasion of their space, and are usually non-predatory in nature.

3311/ Great Whites can swim at up to 25 mph. They must swim continually or they would sink, as they don't have a swim bladder to keep them afloat like a bony fish.

3312/ Great White Sharks have a heat exchanging circulatory system, keeping vital organs above the temperature of the surrounding seawater.

3313/ Great White Sharks are found throughout the world, mainly in temperate and subtropical oceans; their maximum depths are around 250 to 300 metres (820-984 feet).

3314/ Their sense of smell is so powerful that they can detect a drop of blood in 100 litres (25 gallons) of water.

3315/ On a beach holiday, you are more likely to die from a coconut falling on your head than a shark attack.

3316/ Sharks evolved over 200 million years before the dinosaurs and their highly sophisticated template has remained virtually unchanged for the past 70 million years.

3317/ It takes many shark species 15 to 20 years to reach reproductive maturity. So any wholesale slaughter, such as 'finning', to cut off their fin for use in Shark Fin Soup, a 'delicacy' in Hong King is devestating to their numbers. Many species numbers have declined dramatically.

3318/ A shark bites with it's lower jaw first and then its upper. It tosses its head back and forth to tear loose a piece of meat which it swallows whole.

3319/ Sharks sometimes eat other sharks. For example, a tiger shark might eat a bull shark, a bull shark might eat a blacktip shark and a blacktip shark might eat a dogfish shark!

3320/ On average, there are only about 100 shark attacks each year and only 10 of those result in a human death.

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