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Articles on White sharks

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White sharks are migrating to survive. Morne Hardenberg.

South Africa’s great white sharks are changing locations – they need to be monitored for beach safety and conservation

South Africa’s white shark population is not in decline but migrating to survive.
Female elephant seals take seven-month feeding trips during which they balance danger, starvation and exhaustion. Dan Costa

Risk versus reward on the high seas – skinny elephant seals trade safety for sustenance

By measuring how and when elephant seals sleep, researchers were able to figure out how elephant seals change their risk-taking behavior as they gain weight.
It’s OK, I’m a filter feeder: Whale shark off Indonesia. Marcel Ekkel/Flickr

Shark Week looms, but don’t panic

Media coverage of sharks often exaggerates risks to people, but more than 500 shark species have never been known to attack humans, and there’s lots to learn about them.
Scalloped hammerhead entangled in a Queensland shark control net at Magnetic Island, Townsville. Courtesy of Nicole McLachlan

Some sharks have declined by 92% in the past half-century off Queensland’s coast

Some media have reported shark numbers at ‘plague proportions’ in Australian waters. But a new analysis suggests the opposite: species such as hammerheads and white sharks have plummeted in number.
The CSIRO has provided new estimates of population sizes for White Sharks in Australian waters. Fiona Ayerst/Shutterstock

FactFile: the facts on shark bites and shark numbers

How many shark encounters have there been at your local beach? Explore our interactive map to see 20 years of incidents between humans and sharks in coastal waters around Australia.
White sharks’ ability to stay warm in cold water makes them efficient long-range hunters. Denice Askebrink

Why do shark bites seem to be more deadly in Australia than elsewhere?

Fatal shark bites are very rare. But the stats do suggest that the likelihood of an attack proving fatal is higher in Australia - probably because our waters are home to the “big three” dangerous species.
A shark’s nose is chemosensory only, and it doesn’t join up to the back of the throat like ours does. Flickr/Leszek Leszczynski

Curious Kids: Do sharks sneeze?

Sharks can’t sneeze like we do, but they can do other cool tricks – like making their stomach stick out of their mouth to get rid of unwanted stuff.
Shelly Beach near Ballina, one of the new shark net locations, was the scene of a fatal shark attack in February 2015. Dave Hunt/AAP

Not just nets: how to stop shark attacks without killing sharks

Shark nets are controversial, which is why the New South Wales government is investigating a host of other ways to keep humans and sharks apart – some more tried and tested than others.

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