In 1812, the English zoologist Thomas Pinat wrote in a book: "A complete human skeleton was found in the belly of a great white shark. "In 1975, the release of the movie "Jaws" caused many people to fear great white sharks. However, in the eyes of experts, the great white shark is actually a smart and docile marine creature.
The jaw's formidable predatory abilities have led to the belief that the shark is so cruel that it can even attack humans.
Marine biologist Pierre Cook and others, who are looking forward to face-to-face contact with great white sharks again. Cook has made more than 200 such journeys since 2010 to unravel many of the unsolved mysteries about the Great White Shark.
On one of the journeys the speedboat approached Seal Island,
It is a rocky island about 400 meters long and is home to more than 60,000 seals. Cook and they found that although seals were afraid to go to the sea in search of food for fear of great white sharks, they would eventually dive into the water to forage for food when they were hungry. However, they must be wary of possible attacks by the great white sharks lurking nearby.
Sure enough, Cook, they soon observed the attacks of the great white sharks on the seals. A great white shark weighing about 1300 kilograms jumped out of the water, biting a seal in its mouth, and then fell into the water, stirring up huge waves. Later, another great white shark jumped out of the water and attacked a seal. When the speedboats sped up to the scene, Cook and all they saw was a blood-colored sea, and several seagulls roared excitedly in the air, swooping down from time to time to eat the remains of seals floating on the surface.
Over an hour and a half, Cook et al. observed 10 great white sharks jumping out of the water to prey on seals. When the sun rose, the great white shark stopped attacking. Cook reckoned that it might have been because the seals had been able to see the shark clearly by this time and had escaped.
The jaw's daring predatory abilities have led people to believe that the shark is extremely cruel and even attacks humans. But Cook and other shark experts don't see it that way, believing that sharks rarely attack humans and that they are sociable and curious. "Unlike most fish, great white sharks are highly intelligent and comprehensible animals," Cook said. ”
Sometimes great white sharks attack people, but they are just out of curiosity, maybe they think it's funny.
Steyr is a shark research specialist at the South African Museum and has been conducting great white shark research in the Simonstown Waters of Cape Town, South Africa, since 1984. He thinks the great white shark has surprising intelligence. "When I'm on the boat, they stick their heads out of the water and look at me," he said. At one point, there were several people on board, and the great white shark looked at the people and examined each one by one. If they can do this, they must have a higher emotional intelligence than the average fish. Steyr also believes that great white sharks are not lone hunters, but social social animals. When great white sharks gather together, some great white sharks appear more assertive, while others appear timid. Steyr learned from fishermen that sharks cooperate with each other when preying, such as one great white shark taking the initiative to attract the seal's attention while another sneaks up on the seal from behind.
Steyr believes that sharks have a strong curiosity. Sometimes sharks catch seals, penguins, etc., out of curiosity, not out of prey, he said. One of his students once observed a great white shark bite a seal and then throw it into the air, and so on. Pierre Cook himself saw a great white shark sneaking underneath a floating seabird, holding it "gently" in its mouth and cruising around the boat. A few seconds later, the seabird surfaced and then sank again. Goppeno also believes that some great white sharks attack people only because they find it fun. Two divers who had been bitten by great white sharks once told him that the great white sharks had swum a short distance in the sea with their hands and then let them go. They didn't hurt much.
Since 1876, there have been more than 200 records of great white sharks attacking humans, but investigations have confirmed that great white sharks have actively attacked humans very small.
Many of the so-called "great white shark attacks" are actually great white sharks biting people and then letting go. Gopeno believes sharks are just trying to find better self-protection in waters full of a variety of animals. According to international shark attack archives, in the 1990s, more than 80% of people survived a great white shark attack. If the great white shark really attacked people on purpose, then most people would not have a chance to survive. In 2007, there was a shark attack on an Australian beach: a female tourist was attacked by a great white shark in a kayak, and she repelled it with a paddle. She was stitched four times where she was bitten by a great white shark. Goopeno said, "If the great white sharks are really going to attack her, she has become a mess of broken flesh." ”
The Shark Man dances intimately with the great white sharks in the water, and he can also get close to the great white sharks to tickle them.
Mike Curts, who lives in the village of Gansbaai, about 160 kilometres southeast of Cape Town, has been in the shark watch business since 2011, whereby visitors are packed in protective cages and then put into the sea to get up close and personal with great white sharks. Mike is a well-known local person who can dive with great white sharks without the help of protective cages.
Referring to the close contact with the great white shark, Mike said: "When I first faced the great white shark, I was very scared. The great white shark swam toward me, and I nervously picked up the spear and pointed it at it, and it swam away. After a while, it turned again, stirring up waves to push my boat away. Then it slammed into front of me, opened its huge mouth to show me its sharp teeth, and then wandered away, as if to warn me: 'Don't do this next time.' ’”
However, this did not shake Mike's determination to get close to the Great White Shark. Through observation, he found that great white sharks are not as ferocious and bloody as people say, they are very intelligent and very sensitive. Mike says that when they perceive your kindness and think you are neither a predator nor a predator, they will accept you from the heart and dance with you, they will allow you to swim with them with your hands on their fins, and you can also approach them and tickle them.
Mike often dives into the water to play with great white sharks, and even becomes good friends with great white sharks. In order to make himself more acceptable to the great white shark, he has been imitating and learning the body movements of sharks. On a television show, he played in the water with eight curious great white sharks. He hit one of them in the nose, prompting it to open its bloody mouth a few centimeters from his face. He wasn't afraid because he thought it was just a conditioned reflex, not a great white shark threatening him.
Of course, Mike's intimate dance with the great white shark is not without a little danger, and he still has more than 30 scars left by shark attacks on his body. However, these accidents did not diminish his fondness for the great white shark, but made him more frequently in contact with the great white shark. He describes his work this way: "I always excite sharks by stirring up the water so that they will swim boldly toward me. It looked really dangerous, and some people thought I was crazy. ”
Mike found out from close up that the eyes of the great white shark were not "like black beads" as people said, but showed a surprising blue color.
The body of the great white shark is also not all white, its abdomen is grayish white, and its back is dark gray, which helps them to effectively hide themselves. Looking down from above, their dark gray backs easily blend in with the dark sea; from below, their gray-white abdomen matches the shiny water.
The behavior of the great white sharks is still unclear, but the relentless killing of humans has forced them into a desperate situation.
Great white sharks often come to the waters around Seal Island to catch seals, so it's a great place to place electronic trackers for great white sharks. Ellison Cook and the others stopped the speedboat, lowered the anchor, and threw sardines and tuna with hooks into the water. Great white sharks can smell up to 1,000 meters away and then come quickly. They thought there was prey here.
After a while, a female great white shark with a body length of more than 3 meters arrived. Cook fired the spear gun with the blue electronic tag at the tail of the great white shark, but unfortunately did not shoot, and the great white shark left. After a while, unable to resist the temptation of food, the great white shark swam over again. Eventually, Cook seized the opportunity to shoot it. It jerked its body away from the hull of the ship, then swung away with the label.
A little farther away, a huge shadow appeared on the surface of the sea, and Cook recognized it as a great white shark nearly 5 meters long. Cook and they sailed up, but it swam away quickly. Later, people spent an hour trying to mark the big guy, but ultimately it didn't work out.
Since 2015, Cook has labeled 75 great white sharks with electronic tags. In Falls Bay, he dives into the water to place the probe. Whenever a flagged shark passes by the instrument, which is located at a depth of 488 meters under the sea, the instrument automatically records the time, date and identity of the shark.
Although marine biologists have been studying great white sharks for years, they still don't know much about their behavior and migration patterns. In 2016, researchers implanted an electronic tag into the body of a great white shark named "Nicole" while the great white shark was swimming along the coast of South Africa. The electronic tag recorded the shark's position over a total of 99 days until the tag separated from it. The electronic tag recorded the shark's journey of about 11,000 kilometers, the first record of the migration of the great white shark.
Recently, marine biologists discovered that some great white sharks swim to the Hawaiian Islands every year and then return to the sea where they originally lived. Curiously, whenever they swim to a location halfway from Hawaii, they pause and gather there. Why do they meet in the middle? To eat, to mate, or for some other reason? It's unknown, because no one has ever seen a great white shark mate. It is only known that among some other species of sharks, the strongest juvenile sharks will eat weaker siblings in their wombs, and no one knows whether great white sharks do the same. Marine biologists have also found that great white sharks from California and Hawaii are not mixed with those from South Africa and Australia. Why? There are no answers at this time. There are still many unsolved mysteries about the great white shark waiting for scientists to solve.
Monitoring found that the population of great white sharks along the Atlantic coast of the United States has decreased by more than 75% in the past 20 years, and its main "culprit" is commercial hunting. Shark meat is very cheap, but shark fin can sell for a good price,
Shark fin soup sells for around £300 per 500g, so people hunt great white sharks to get shark fins. Shark fishermen often cut off the dorsal, caudal and pectoral fins of sharks used to make shark fins and then throw the bloodied shark back into the sea. Sharks without fins have a hard time surviving in the sea, and these injured sharks usually end up drowning or dying of excessive blood loss. Also included in the illegal trade is the trade in great white shark teeth.
A jaw of a great white shark with all teeth has a market capitalization of about $25,000 on the U.S. black market. Due to human hunting, the great white shark is now classified as a "frequently endangered animal".