Great Whites will eat anything and anyone in the water - Not true.  see Range & Diet  But Great Whites will BITE just about anything. Mostly they just spit things out if it doesn't taste like it's worth swallowing.  Many people believe the Great White (and sharks in general) are mindless maneaters. And while there is no doubt there have been numerous attacks on humans throughout history, the myth of the mindless maneater purveys to this day. Contrary to popular belief, only a few sharks are dangerous to humans. Out of more than 360 species, only four have been involved in a significant amount of fatal unprovoked attacks on humans: the great white, tiger, oceanic whitetip and bull sharks. These sharks, being large, powerful predators may sometimes attack and kill people, but all of the above sharks, even the Great White, have been seen and filmed in open water, with no cage, time and time again, without incident. I must admit however that the people that can say they have done this are craaaaaaazy! :) I say this because Great Whites HAVE and DO attack people. It just depends on their general disposition and how hungry they are.

Great Whites have poor vision - False. Great whites have excellent vision. Scientists believe a Great White can see as easily underwater as you and I can see on land. And now scientists have discovered Great Whites actually have fairly decent vision above water as well. Great whites have also been known to bob on the surface and observe their surroundings.

 I do believe in sharks. I do I do I do. Please let him think I'm just a big yellow buoy.

Great Whites will capsize a boat to eat people. - It has happened once but the possibility seems extremely unlikey. The only time a great white has ever been known to capsize a boat or boats and eat the occupants occurred in 1989 when a great white killed Tamara McAllister, 24 and her boyfriend Roy Jeffrey Stoddard while they were kayaking off the coast of Malibu, California. McAllister's body was found floating face down two days later with large sections from her legs and buttocks missing; no trace of Stoddard has ever been found. Other than that great whites have not been known to do anything more than eyeball and occasionally taste test an ocean going Kayak in open waters.

Great whites use their teeth to feel things exactly like we humans do with our hands. Sharks obviously don't have hands so they use their teeth. By using their teeth and jaw pressure on objects they can more accurately judge exactly what they are dealing with if the object in question is foreign to them. They probably do this to determine if what they are "feeling" is worth eating. Great whites like soft blubbery seals and the softer something is the more likely they will consider it a potential food source and bite again. Especially if it bleeds. This is often why they will bite kayaks, surfboards and boats and then release them and swim away. They are too hard and don't "feel" edible.  They get the information they are looking for from the initial bite. Unfortunately for McAllister & Stoddard, what was probably just a simple great white taste test turned fatal when one or both of them panicked and capsized. Or maybe the initial bite was into one of them. It's certainly possible the white knocked them out of their boats but we will never know. More often than not people get away with nothing more than large teeth marks on their surboards, or boats and have a hell of a story to tell. And probably some soiled underwear to go with it.

Great Whites will jump into a boat to attack people - False. Great Whites have been filmed behind boats jumping out of the water in a spectacular display of ocean acrobatics but this behavior has been orchestrated by professional great white tour operators in order to get the sharks to do this. The guides will drag a piece of meat (usually a dead seal) behind the boat at a speed just above the sharks ability to hit it in order to get the shark to launch into the air. This is how photographs like the one below are taken. However, Great Whites do not generally jump up out of the water to attack people.

Great Whites will stop at nothing to bite a human - False. Great whites are intelligent animals and very curious by nature. They like to investigate things unfamiliar to them and in some cases they even seem to enjoy being touched while interacting with humans.

Case in point is the photo below from Amos Nachom's Great White shark tours for Big Animals.com in South Africa. How many people have you seen reach out and touch a great white on the nose without getting their arm ripped off? Realize this animal is capable of taking this man right out of the boat if it so desired. Just look at the photo above. And yes, that is his hand on it's snout ! I venture to say that if he was foolish enough to stick his arm it it's mouth it would be more than happy to pull him in and have him for lunch. But it doesn't go out of it's way to make that happnen. In fact there are about 20-30 great whites in this area that these guys have become quite familiar with. Notice I didn't say friendly. These sharks are not friendly.  But it seems as if they realize that these guides are keenly aware of them and so have also become keenly aware of these people in their midst. And their interactions as you can see are down right amazing. If you would like to witness this type of interaction up close and personal you can take a trip to see these sharks in person. Click on the link below. A small amount to pay for such an awesome experience.

courtesy

http://www.biganimals.com/gw_shark.html

Great Whites have no natural predators - also False. Great whites only have one natural predator...Man. Fear of sharks and commercial interests in sharks have made man the only natural predator of the great white shark. Fishing and simple killing of these wonderful animals has moved many sharks including the awesome great white closer than ever to extinction. Big sharks are needed in the worlds oceans to keep biodiversity on an even keel so to speak. The prey big sharks eat tend to reach their reproductive carrying capacity for their given environments fairly rapidly. Without great whites and other large sharks the worlds oceans would become "off balance" leading to more natural pollution of the ocean waters while creating over population of certain species in the ecosystem. The loss of this apex predator would create  a devastating chain reaction in the worlds oceans which would cause those same prey to destroy (in effect overfish their own food sources) and so on and so on. Leaving massive losses in the ocean's populations which would devastate populations of organisms down to the smallest organisms. Unless we do something about shark conservation now this destruction will take place sooner than later. Imagine a desolate and lifeless ocean. It is one potential reality in a not so distant future due to pollution and the killing of our oceans apex predators. Save Whitey!