'It's the largest migration of animals on Earth': Mysterious great white shark lair discovered in Pacific Ocean

Great white sharks have led researchers to discover a secret, hidden oceanic void teeming with life.

Marine biologists began tagging sharks more than a decade ago but the predators' month-long annual pilgrimage to a seemingly barren area in the mid-Pacific region from the coasts of California and Mexico had baffled scientists. Now researchers from Stanford University and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, have found that apparently empty stretch of ocean, known as the mid-water, is in fact teeming with life.

'The story of the white shark tells you that this area is vitally important in ways we never knew about,' Salvador Jorgensen, a research scientist for the Aquarium, told SF Gate. 'They are telling us this incredible story about the mid-water, and there is this whole secret life that we need to know about.'

Nicknamed the 'shark cafe' by scientists, the water is abundant with squid, jellyfish, deep water fish like bioluminescent lantern fish, and tiny phytoplankton.

The sharks behavior also appeared to be determined by gender; with males diving down as many as 140 times a day.

Meanwhile the females would only deep dive, between 1,400 feet and 3,000 feet during the day, and 650 feet at night.

They found the sharks were using warm circular currents to get down through to the cold water, suggesting they were following prey.

'Either they are eating something different or this is related in some way to their mating,' Jorgensen said.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6178359/Mysterious-great-white-shark-lair-discovered-Pacific-Ocean.html

The proper name for those wee l'il beasties is White Pointer sharks...

In reality, the term "great white shark" was an unscripted throwaway line in the first Jaws movie -- the fact that it became a popular common name for White Pointers since the 1970s just goes to show how easily people are influenced through popular media such as movies..

Personally, I would be a bit wary of journo's and researchers continually calling a shark by a common nickname, rather than its longtime proper title.

Talking about Sharks, a few months ago I saw a film on TV were some Asians, I think they were Indonesians, were catching Sharks, cutting their fins off and throwing them alive back into the Sea !
Bastards need shooting !