8 Characteristics of Life as shown by the Carcharodon carcharias
Great White Shark
Rachel Kaveney
10/14/14
Biology I H (8)
Introduction "You 're gonna need a bigger boat." This famous line from the blockbuster movie, Jaws, says it all. If the police chief wants to find and kill a Great White Shark, which has gone rogue in a small New England inlet, then a bigger boat was absolutely necessary. This 1975 movie stirred fear of both sharks and the deep, unknown ocean in many a movie-goer. Carcharodon carcharias otherwise known as The Great White Shark is "the king of the ocean." When hunting, Great White Sharks can stick their heads out of the water to inspect their prey closer (in text). When swimming at the beaches in the ocean, there is a 1 in 11.5 million chance that we will fall victim to a shark attack ("Risk"). Sharks cannot have cancer. Research has been done, and when injected with cancer cells, no sign of growth or cancer has been detected. Scientists are trying to see if sharks might be the answer to curing cancer (Cerullo 40).
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Reproduce Great White Sharks produce sexually. Great White Sharks are not mammals, so shouldn 't they lay eggs? Incorrect, some sharks, like the Great White Shark, give birth to live babies (or pups). The mating season is all year round. When matured females are ready to mate, a hormonal chemical is produced and put into the waters. Males then come along and use two claspers to fertilize the females eggs (8 Facts).
Shark attacks still happen to this day. There’s nothing more terrifying than hearing a story in the news of a mighty, great white shark killing an innocent person. He mentions the backlash of Hollywood blockbusters such as “Jaws” and “Sharknado 3” that intensifies one’s fear. Sharks have evolved in our
Sharks, the scariest, biggest, baddest creatures! That's what we make them out to be, but are they really? The answer is no, we say that. We kill more of them than they kill of us, about 900,094 more. Sharks, being carnivores, are NOT natural predators of humans.
The Great White, up to 21 feet long with razor teeth may seem like a monster but there is much that society does not know. Sharks need to be protected because of the benefits they give humans. Also by tracking sharks is one way researchers can find a way to understand sharaks more.
Sharks are vicious creatures and eat humans. Don’t go into the water if you see a shark nearby or they will come after you. These are a few of the many things you will hear from the television or even people you may know. Humans are not a part of the shark diet so it is highly unlikely that a shark would randomly go after a human. The media likes to make their shark stories more exciting by adding words like “aggressive” or “threatened.” There was a total of 4 deaths caused by sharks in 2014 which is a large contrast to the 11,417 sharks that are killed per hour by humans. sharks) need to be preserved and protected in order to preserve our oceans. Laws that are more strict should be implemented in order to achieve this goal.
Every Jaws fan knows the shark gets it in the end. What they do not know is that too many sharks have gotten it; and that has caused a rapid decline in the shark population over the past thirty years. Since the 1970's, sharks of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico shores have declined eighty-five percent. Sharks are vital animal to our world's ecosystem, and if the decline is not controlled; we could be facing devastating problems in years to come. Information has been obtained from two books: The Shark Almanac by Thomas B. Allen and Sharks, An Introduction for the Amateur Naturalist by Sanford A. Moss. Sources also include a number of online references, among them BBC News, ENS News, The New York Times, and two online scientific
Those who think Great White Sharks are dangerous, think again. This story is going to take you on a journey that will make you love them. So jump in your submarine and buckle up. We’re off on an adventure.
Shark mating rituals vary from the size of the shark and its specie. In smaller, more flexible species, the male coils around the female, while the male of the larger specie orients himself parallel and head-to-head with the female (Woums & Demski 1993). Some species mating rituals also consists of males biting females on the pectoral fins or the middle of the back to hold on to them (Woums & Demski 1993). The female will often bear scars or marks, after the ordeal. Due to the fact that sharks are cold blooded animals, there is no precise gestation time. The development of the embryo will depend solely on the temperature of the water, however, the gestation period can last anywhere from 2 months to 2 years (Woums & Demski 1993). Within shark species there are two methods of reproduction. In some cases a female shark will lay eggs in a coastal nursery where the presence of other sharks are absent. And in other cases, usually in the larger sharks, females give birth to live offspring (Wourms & Demski 1993). In which case the young are born fully developed, and once they are born they shoot away fast or they risk being eaten.
78 percent people feel safe from shark attacks and enter the water at their own risk. You are entering the home of a 20 feet long animal that has razor sharp teeth. We use the ocean as a luxury, we can enjoy however we need to be mindful that your entering in the sharks home. These beachside towns wont be affected because 78 percent of people don’t mind entering the water with these large sharks.
The Great White Shark is the top predator of the ocean, meaning that it is not hunted by other animals in the waters. The Great White has been listed as an endangered species due to the over hunting of them for shark teeth and there fins.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s article “The Brutal Business of Shark Finning” reminds us that sharks play a key role in the ocean as both predators and scavengers.
An encounter with a shark is not something that many people really want to experience. The movie Jaws definitely put the fear of the ocean into many people. Sharks have been all over the media lately; Shark Week on the Discovery Channel just ended, and several attacks have been reported over the last few months. However, on a happier note, a beached Great White was saved this weekend in Cape Cod by beachgoers who sympathized with the struggling animal.
Reproduction usually occurs once a year for hammerhead sharks. Male hammerhead sharks start to bite the female hammerhead sharks when they are ready to mate. Female hammerhead sharks give birth to their cubs in the warm water. They are able to have 12-15 cubs at once. Not all cubs will make it out of birth from the mother. The female hammerheads immediately leave the pups alone to take care of themselves. A good percentage of the cubs will survive after birth and it is unusual for all cubs to survive.
The Australian Grey Nurse Shark is also known as the Spotted Ragged-Tooth Shark and as the Sand Tiger Shark ("Australian Threatened Species”). The species is identified by its gray to gray-brown coloration, the possible presence of reddish/brownish spots on the caudal fin and posterior half, their countershading, and by its two almost equally sized dorsal fins. They are known to grow over 3.6 meters in length with the males and females maturing at different lengths, 2.21 meters and 2.2 meters, respectively (McGrouther, 2015). Females also mature significantly later at 9-10 years than their male counterparts, who mature at 6-7 years. Their diet consists of fish,
Next is that not all sharks are aggressive, majority of shark attack incident come from the great white, tiger and bull sharks, and interestingly, they are not always deliberately attack human, according to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), it is just like a cat or dog, they need to smell or lick us to recognize us, but for shark, not smell or lick, they do it with a test bite. Together with shark’s sharp teeth, we get our shark attack incidents. One more thing, similar to cartilage supplement, other body parts of shark are not necessary good for health, most of them contain higher concentration of
Sharks are one of the most feared carnivores in the sea. There are 365 species of of sharks in the sea as we know today. All sharks are carnivores. Most of them eat live fish, including other sharks. A shark's most common natural enemy is an another shark. Most sharks eat their prey whole, or they tear off large chunks of the bodies. Some sharks crush their prey. Others take out small pieces off flesh from large fish. Sharks also feed on dead or dying animals. Sharks have the reputation of attacking human beings. But less than 100 shark attacks a year are reported throughout the world. Sharks are most common in warm seas and oceans. Whale sharks, are the largest shark known to man. Sharks are classified in the order