Let me start of by saying that I don't agree with fishing for the Great White shark. And I only agree with fishing for common sharks on a non commercial level.  Until recently, Great White shark fishing was not only accepted, it has been encouraged. Especially the Great White because it was so feared and considered a threat to man when ever and where ever the shark was found.

Only until recent years the Great White has been misunderstood and constantly hunted. Usually the only thing taken after the kill is the sharks awesome set of Jaws and the fins if it happens to be caught by an Asian fishing ship. In my opinion this is not only sad, it is criminal, not just morally but legally some places. Some countries are taking measures to protect the Great White. And anything I can do through this website to help the conservation of these incredible animals will be done. I do not have links to sites that promote shark cartilage as health food, or any other endeavor which would cause these magnificent animals to be hunted and killed. Long live the awesome Great White shark.

Shark Conservation Videos

The species is slow to grow and late to mature, which makes it difficult for Great White shark populations to bounce back from the depredations of fishing.  ~ Humane Society International's Nicola Beynon

GREAT WHITE SHARK Fishing

Interesting and sad at the same time. 

This photo gives you an excellent perspective of the size of a full grown Great White shark compared to an adult human. Can you say...one bite?   Scary.

Two photos of a "dead" Great White beached in South Africa

Dead Whitey on the beach in South Africa.

Not a very bright thing to do. Sharks have a way of looking dead when they aren't really dead. I learned this the hard way one day on the beach in San Francisco when I was nearly bitten by a nurse shark after attempting to drag it farther up onto the beach. It was lying there apparently "dead" for some time and didn't move a muscle with all my poking and prodding until I attempted to move it. I wouldn't have touched this "dead" Great White like she is doing in the photo given my past experience. Call it nerves, a death rattle, whatever....it still can be dangerous.

Another unfortunate Great White shark death

Another Great White death that could have been avoided.

Dean "Deano" Stefanek spent 30 minutes battling an enraged 6m great white shark - and lived. The South Australian tuna diver has told how he volunteered to jump into a tuna pen to try to kill the injured shark.

"Somebody had to do it, no one else was too keen, so I went in," Mr Stefanek, 38, said. The struggle took place recently at a tuna farm off the coast of Mexico and the tale of the Aussie who "wrestled" the fearsome fish has spread.  

Mr Stefanek, who returned to Port Lincoln this month after a six-month contract working on Mexican tuna farms, played down his feat. "It was one of those things that just happened," he said. "The shark had got in by biting its way through the bottom of the net after detecting a couple of dead fish.

 "There was just no way we could get it out, so the decision to kill it was made and some blokes shot it - but no way it would die. "It started to get messy and I jumped into the water and swam outside the net so I could shoot it with a power head (spear-fitted with a shotgun cartridge)." The white pointer became enraged and began thrashing around the 45m tuna net.

"Someone had to go in," Mr Stefanek said. "I was the most experienced diver there and no one else was too keen, so I went inside the net. "The shark saw me and went berserk. I tried to kill it quickly and fired at its head, which only stunned it. "I fired eight more times and it kept coming back and thrashing. I think it was then that I started to get a bit scared. "Another diver could see I was in trouble and came inside the net - we figured we were not going to kill it and I thought we'll have to drag it out."

Mr Stefanek surfaced and called for a rope and pulley and dived again to tie a rope around the shark's tail. While the fish was distracted with another diver, Mr Stefanek looped and knotted its tail and signalled to start winching. "It was after I looked at it on the boat I realised it was huge," he said. "No one there had ever seen a shark so big and there were a few stunned and amazed looks. "The great pity was it had to be killed - particularly as it was wounded. "I know they (great whites) are becoming extinct. But there is only one of me and it could have made me extinct very quickly."

Article by Peter Haran (Sunday Times Australia)

Well at least Mr. Stefanek wasn't happy he killed the shark. I think they could have destroyed their precious tuna net to let it out. Oh well, it really was a monster though. In case you are wondering, the photo below will show you the kind of net the shark was trapped in.  Also, here is another albeit happier story of a trap great white.

Tuna pens off the coast of Mexico. The tuna are kept here and fed a diet of Sardines over a period of weeks. No wonder a Great White would want in.

Happy ending for Great White trapped in Australian tuna pen

This is a great white that was trapped in a tuna pen in Australia recently. The following is a transcript of an interview by reporter Tim Jeanes and Eleanor Hall of The World Today of ABC Radio

ELEANOR HALL: Back home now, to the saga of the Great White Shark. The female White Pointer shark, which has been trapped inside what some described as takeaway heaven, an experimental tuna farm, and had for 6 days been resisting all attempts to remove her, is now on her way to the Great Australian Bight.

Researchers say new equipment developed in conjunction with Sydney shark expert, Ian Gordon, was used to release her.

Joining me now from Port Lincoln is the ABC reporter Tim Jeanes from Port Lincoln.

Tim, just how did these people convince the shark to leave what was obviously a free feeding ground?

TIM JEANES: Well, what they did was they developed a special panel that they basically strapped to the side of the cage and it was basically an escape gap that was provided for the shark but not the tuna, and by all reports she just swam quite comfortably out and, you know, didn't even bother to wave goodbye, they said.

ELEANOR HALL: How many tuna did the tuna farm owners, in the end, lose?

TIM JEANES: Out of the 300 apparently they only lost two, so everyone all-round is pretty happy.

ELEANOR HALL: Only two were lost?

TIM JEANES: Two out of 300 and we were talking what SARDI estimated, that's the South Australian Research and Development Institute, as $1 million worth, so they were very happy.

ELEANOR HALL: So it sounds like the shark wasn't really having a feeding frenzy after all. What was she doing?

TIM JEANES: Oh, sorry in terms of eating they're still not yet to assess that, but in terms of the ones that they actually lost when she swam out, two.

ELEANOR HALL: Ah, I see what you mean. So we don't yet know how many she ate during the six days in captivity.

TIM JEANES: They're yet to assess that, but by all reports she actually wasn't really that interested. I spoke with someone yesterday who said she'd go up and the fish would go down, then she'd go down and the fish would go up.

ELEANOR HALL: Sounds like the fish might have been quite clever in avoiding her.

TIM JEANES: I think that's it. It's a bit like the sea lion early on, there was, I'm not sure if you're aware, originally there was the shark and the sea lion, and the initial reports were that the sea lion was actually chasing the shark, but I spoke with someone who said no, the sea lion was actually just staying behind the shark, rather than in front of it.

ELEANOR HALL: This all sounds terribly confusing. Why would a sea lion be chasing a shark? I would have thought it would be the other way around.

TIM JEANES: Well, as I said, they eventually worked out she was just staying behind the shark.

ELEANOR HALL: And the shark wasn't interested in eating the sea lion or really the tuna?

TIM JEANES: Ah, that's still yet to be decided. They think that one night the sea lion may have become dinner, but anyway as I said it's been a really happy ending, and Ian Gordon, he's from Sydney, as you're aware he flew in this morning, they say he proved invaluable in developing this new technology.

ELEANOR HALL: And do we now know how the shark got into the tuna pen, because I understand that there was no hole in the netting there?

TIM JEANES: Look, that's still a real mystery. They say they haven't been able to find a hole in the netting, and look, at this stage it's going from the theory that she bit through the cage at the bottom to get hold of a dead tuna down the bottom, to just the fact that she just jumped in, and we're talking, you know, at least a two metre jump, so, but they have been known to jump in South Africa up to two-and-a-half metres, so yeah, she may have just seen the tuna, though well, there's dinner and jumped in.

ELEANOR HALL: And this new equipment that was used to release her, did that involve making a hole in the boundaries of the farm?

TIM JEANES: Yes. I mean, basically they just provided an escape gap where the shark could get in, and as I said only a couple of tuna, and it was very much made on the run. I mean, it was basically Ian Gordon flew in and said well this is what is needed, let's build it, and they tried it this morning and it worked.

ELEANOR HALL: Tim Jeanes at from Port Lincoln, thanks very much for updating us on that.

  List of countries that have banned fishing for the Great White shark.

South Africa  - April 1991 - Became the first country to ban the killing of Great White sharks. No Great White shark may be taken within 200 miles of the coast.

Also Tasmania, Namibia and the Maldives

Malta - Sept 1999 became the first European country to ban fishing for the Great White shark.

United States - August 2, 1997 - The state of California passed into law a ban on the fishing of the Great White shark in state waters. Toward the end of 1997 the National Marine Fisheries Service outlawed all fishing for the Great White shark throughout the waters of the Eastern United states (Atlantic seaboard) and the Gulf of Mexico.

Australia - Dec 1997 -Australian Government declared the White Shark protected throughout Commonwealth waters.

Australia & Madagascar - In 2004 the Australian Government, in cooperation with the Government of Madagascar, successfully listed the Great White Shark on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. The listing aims to prevent the highly lucrative illegal trade in Great White Shark products such as teeth, jaws and fins.

Click HERE to download Australian Great White Recovery Plan .PDF

Click HERE to download the CITES Great White inclusion for protection .PDF

There is no doubt that the jaws of the Great White are an awesome and highly valued collectible item all over the world. But due to the long period of time it takes for a Great White to mature, and the slow breeding process this hunting practice MUST be stopped Internationally.

Unknown man in unknown location

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SUPPORT THE PREVENTION OF PRACTICES SUCH AS THIS FROMTHE UNITED STATES

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SUPPORT THE PREVENTION OF PRACTICES SUCH AS THIS FROM AUSTRALIA

If you are interested in owning a set of jaws like this may I suggest the perfect alternative. Buy a replica set of Great White shark jaws.

Click  for more information.

GREAT WHITE SHARK ATTACKED

Life after Jaws isn't easy for a struggling shark species.

On January 6, 1998, a 14-foot great white shark, trapped in shallow waters off Cape Town, South Africa, was attacked and beaten to death by beachgoers armed with steel rods and other weapons. Apparently ill, the struggling shark was butchered to such an extent that not enough remained for an autopsy. The next day newspapers ran photographs of the remains, surrounded by smiling men, women, and children. The headline should have read, "Another Great White Shark Victim of Unprovoked Attack by Humans."