QUOTE (ravergirl @ Jan 4 2008, 06:25 PM)
great white sharks may spend most of their time in cold water but they are studied off the coast of mexico on the pacific side, and in the gulf of mexico the
"red tide" is supposed to be caused by great whites, Hawaii isn't cold and they go there too.
IMO sharks are some of the most amazing, magnificent beautiful creatures on this planet. i love love them
Where did you here that? Red tide is caused by the dinoflagellate
Karenia brevis which produces the poison brevotoxin. Feel free to check out Mote Marines information on it where I help study it.
Mote red tide information.Whites are rare in the gulf, very rare. The Pacific coast of Mexico is also bloody cold. It has cold currents running down it as does California (Where they are more prevalently studied) South Africa and Australia also find them mainly in cold water. They are found off Hawaii, but again this is rare. They are very much a predominately temperate water species. Hence the adaptation of endothermic poikilothermy, basically it is slightly warm blooded. This helps it hunt in cold water.
Just on the original point, I get so annoyed when articles say great whites are looking at us for potential prey, very few people die from great white attacks ever, most bites are not fatal and are nearly always misidentification and in murky water with limited visibility. You are more likely to be killed by a pet dog.
