Great white sharks can reach lengths of up to 6.4 m and weigh as much as 2,041 kg. This powerful swimmer can travel long distances with ease but is also capable of short bursts of speed, reaching up to around 50 kph – making any encounter in the water a terrifying prospect.
The great white shark is a stealthy ambush predator, famous for breaching the water to snatch prey with its razor-sharp, triangular teeth, delivering a bite force of up to 1.8 metric tonnes. Feeding primarily on marine mammals, such as seals, dolphins, and some whale species, their diet also includes seabirds, turtles, crustaceans, molluscs, and carcasses. Juveniles hunt smaller prey, including fish and rays.
Great whites often patrol coastlines in temperate and tropical oceans, such as Australia and South Africa, abundant in food and their acute sense of smell allows them to detect a seal colony from 3 km away – or a single drop of blood in 100 litres of water.
Despite their fearsome reputation in books and films like Jaws, humans are rarely at risk. Most unprovoked attacks, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History, are “test bites,” when a shark mistakes a person for its usual prey. Millions of people swim in the world’s oceans each year, and shark attacks remain exceptionally rare. In 2023, there were 10 recorded fatalities worldwide caused by bull sharks, tiger sharks, and great whites.
A solo spearfisher captured his "intense and unexpectedly long encounter with a 3-metre Great White Shark", adding that the experience "completely changed the way I view the ocean and how I spearfish".
