Fluffy!

I'm dedicating today's post to Fluffy or what the rest of you land-lubber's call the Great White Shark.  Carcharidon carcharius is one of the largest species of sharks. It's the most magnificent animal in the sea; an apex predator, pure testosterone, a killer feared by millions and totally misunderstood.  You may be asking why I would call this oh so loathsome creature Fluffy?...well, it's the antithesis of what he is in reality and doing so, disarms his affect on me and other ocean-going and loving humans.

A few factoids:

• The dorsal surface is grey to blue-grey, while the ventral surface is white. The border between these colours is usually well defined.  Why are they colored the way they are? The grey coloration on top helps to camouflage the shark when approaching prey from below and the white underbelly helps to camouflage him from below.  He is stealth.
• A dentists nightmare!  The teeth of the Great White are large, arrowhead-shaped and serrated. They have about 3,000 teeth at any one time. The teeth are in rows, which rotate when needed. As teeth are lost, broken or worn down, teeth that rotate into place replace them.  No need for capping, bridging or filling here!
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  White sharks are intelligent and have one of the largest brains for their body size of any animal - more similar to mammals than other fish. Its sense organs are outstanding and unique in the animal world. Great White's primarily use their sense of smell and are also able to sense electrical charges. Rumor has it they can smell a drop of blood from miles away!
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  In one program on Discovery Channel, they were attempting to understand why all the Whites were mysteriously gone from the Farallon Islands by stating that they sensed another Whites blood in the area.  Sharks seem to react frantically when detecting their own blood!  But another theory may be the actual reason...
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  Another program aired showing the interaction between Orcas and Whites.  Seems Orcas have a penchant for liver...Great White's liver.  Click here for more info

• Should we be afraid?  More people drown or are injured or killed by bee stings, lightning, or snakebites every year than are attacked by sharks. Nevertheless, great whites are dangerous to humans in the water, and some regions have reported more captures or attacks than others. The few shark attacks that occur every year are an excellent indication that sharks do not feed on humans and that most attacks are simply due to mistaken identity.
  • When Whites are young they feed on fish...yes, that's right fish.  In La Jolla we do see smaller Whites more often than the larger adult ones.  Personally it's the teenagers, I worry about; when they start trying out the mammalian blue plate special of the area!
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    The number of attacks has been increasing over the decades as a result of increased human populations and the use of the oceans for recreational activity. Not to mention the increase in populations of their primary food source: seals and sea lions (another subject for another day) and the reason the locals call La Jolla Cove the "Great White Bait Tank" or "Smorgasbord".  As long as humans continue to enter the sharks' environment, there will be shark attacks. As OW swimmers and surfers, our odds are greater for an attack than the occasional beach goer, but that won't stop us...we love the sea.
• Should they be afraid?  Other than Orcas, humans are the Whites only known predator!  The White's rate of capture by humans is alarmingly high. This is due partly to the increasing value of its jaws and teeth. Their fins are also used for shark fin soup; valued in Asian cultures. In the despicable practice of "finning", the fins are sliced off of the shark and then the living animal is left to die.  That's no way to treat this magnificent animal.
• At present, the World Conservation Union lists the white shark as "vulnerable". The world's oceans stay healthy because every organism has a part in the complex food web. When any component of this web is removed or reduced the balance in the system is upset. Sharks feed on the sick and dying, and feed on larger animals such as whales, seals and tuna, which have few predators. Their conservation is thus vitally important.

Other names given the White include:

Man-eater, White death, White pointer, Blue pointer, Noah, Tommy, etc.

Here, in La Jolla, we call him The Land Lord, The Man In The Grey Suit and my personal favorite...Fluffy!

see you in the sea...