Great white shark in 1831: Smith descriptions
[36] [great-white-shark-1-36] In 1831, the field log for Great white shark is headed “Smith descriptions.” The figure kept beside that heading is 1975. It is a count or a date from the work, not a rank of the species’ worth. A zoo birthday card does not replace the log. Cape fur seals and elephant seals create predictable prey. Cage tourism and research boats stacked on those same reefs.
Apex lamnid whose warm muscle, broad diet and 1975 cinema still outrun the tagging papers. Did Jaws change great-white numbers or only stories? The 1975 film increased trophy interest and beach fear. Later decline drivers are fins, bycatch and slow life history. Benchley later argued the fiction had been taken as a brief.
A mid-Pacific patch where California-tagged whites linger. Foraging on midwater squid and fish is the working hypothesis, not a seal colony. They are regional endotherms. Countercurrent heat exchangers keep muscle and stomach above ambient -- not mammalian homeothermy. A very large female photographed at Guadalupe and later Hawaii -- a media name, not a stock assessment.
Appendix II in 2004. Papers still move; the listing forces permits and data, not a zero quota. Many coastal adults make basin-scale loops (California-Cafe-Hawaii). Site fidelity to seal colonies is seasonal. Is the species recovering where seals recovered? Cape Cod and parts of California show more sightings as grey seals rebounded. Sightings are not a global Vulnerable reversal.
Keep 1831, “Smith descriptions,” and 1975 together or the note on Great white shark stops being that year’s record.1831
Figures to keep
- Year of the note
- 1831
- Figure to keep
- 1975
- Species
- Great white shark
- Line in the log
- Smith descriptions
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