Great white sharks are not very common in the Gulf of Mexico, but they do occasionally visit the region, according to marine experts.
Dr. Sean Powers, director of the University of South Alabama School of Marine and Environmental Sciences and senior marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, says great white sharks are rarely seen in the Gulf.
“We get them occasionally. We have a lot of trackers on sharks and the most we’ve ever seen is about nine in the entire Gulf of Mexico,” Powers said. “There could be much further offshore.”
Size and Diet
Great white sharks can grow to about 20 feet long and are the largest predatory fish in the ocean. Their diet includes marine mammals like seals, as well as large tunas.
Not a Threat to Gulf Coast Swimmers
While great white sharks are often portrayed as dangerous in movies, they are not considered a significant threat to swimmers in the Gulf Coast region because they prefer deeper, cooler waters.
“In the Gulf of Mexico now, there’s places in the North Atlantic and things where they’ll move shallow. But here, these guys like really cool waters. So our warm kind of beaches aren’t ideal for them,” Powers said.
The largest shark species is the whale shark, which can grow to 40 feet long, but it feeds on plankton and is not dangerous to humans.