The Great White Shark

The great white shark. The white death. The white pointer. Jaws. The undisputed king of the seas since the mighty carchadon megladon (an extinct shark that grew up to 18m long). The great white has 3,000 teeth arranged in rows, if it loses one, another takes it's place. The shark itself can grow to lengths of 6m and can weigh 2,268 kg. They can live for up to 30 (human) years and have been around since the Miocene period. They feed on dolphins, seals, turtles, large fish, dead whales and other sharks.
  This is what gave the great white shark it's terrible reputation and what caused it to strike fear into the hearts of any person from diver to doctor, from surfer to businessman. Yet this supposed man-killer is not what it is said to be. In fact, this 'cold blooded killer' has killed less humans than humans have killed great white sharks. We humans have less to fear from it than it has to fear from us.
  The reason we fear this fascinating creature is mainly down to one film. Jaws. It featured a single great white shark terrorizing a seaside town, biting boats in half and killing swimmers. True, sometimes a great white shark will attack a human but only if it has been provoked by that person. Or if it was pregnant and the person came too close for comfort. But mainly it is a mistake. Sharks, great whites particularly have bad eyesight and to them, a swimmer or surfer looks quite like a dolphin or a seal and it will launch an attack. Normally if it realizes it's mistake it will let go and swim away.

A surfer's silhouette from beneath.

A seal's silhouette from beneath.

  See the similarities? For a great white shark, it is exactly the same.
  Great white sharks are clever and curious, if they see bait on a line, they will cruise around it until they think it is safe to eat it they have electrical sensors that guide them to food, and other objects such as diving cages. They will open their mouths, bare their teeth, lift up the skin above their top jaw and lunge forward. All that takes about a second.
  In some amazing cases, great white sharks will allow themselves to be petted by humans. Valerie Taylor managed to get a great white shark to poke it's head out of the water, eat a dead fish calmly and let her pat it's nose before telling it to swim away (which it did). What a miracle. But in that moment, the world was shown that great white sharks weren't monsters, but, intelligent, fascinating and misunderstood creatures just waiting to be learnt about.

A great white shark drifting peacefully in the Pacific Ocean. 

The Wobbegong Shark

 The wobbegong shark is very hard to see because of it's amazing camouflage. It is found in coral reefs, where it lies on the sandy rocks in wait for it's pray. There are two more common types of wobbegong shark (others such as the brown-spotted and japanese wobbegongs aren't mentioned); the tasseled wobbegong and the ornate wobbegong. The tasseled wobbegong is named for the tassels that protrude from it's head. They look like seaweed, which encourages fish to swim near it and become the shark's dinner. It's back is dark orange and brown making it blend into the seafloor perfectly. Because it is a flat shark, it doesn't have to swim to stay alive and can lie in wait for days. The word 'wobbegong' comes from the Aborigine word meaning hairy beard. It is found in the Indian and Pacific oceans. It has been around since the Jurassic period (For those of you who have never looked inside a history book before, that means they lived with dinosaurs such as styracosauras and T-rex(Though if you don't read history books, you won't know what they are anyway!!)) talk about oldies!! The ornate wobbegong is paler than the tasseled wobbegong and is larger. They have been known to attack humans on sight. Normally, they would have to be provoked to attack but anyone who enters the water with a pregnant female ornate wobbegong and comes out alive can only be very lucky.
  Wobbegong sharks are often found living in harmony with lobsters. The two speicies work together for food and protection. The wobbegong lays itself down on the seafloor while the lobster walks on top of it. Big fish swim towards the motionless lobster in hope of an easy meal. The lobster moves of the wobbegong which then eats the fish, sharing some with the lobster. This is a miracle of nature, a perfectly adapted partnership between hunter and helper.


  A film of a wobbegong shark by Frank Lame of the coast of Australia (Other details
in film) showing it's teeth, swimming style and camouflage. Please note that the 
spelling of 'wobbegong' is incorrect at the start.