On 20 June 1975, a film changed the way the world thought about the ocean. Jaws — Steven Spielberg’s thriller about a great white shark terrorising a small beach town — became the highest-grossing film in history at the time and created a fear of sharks so profound, so visceral, and so enduring that it is still killing great white sharks fifty years later.
The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is one of the most magnificent, ecologically vital, and deeply misunderstood animals on Earth. It is also one of the most threatened. And the myths that surround it — myths perpetuated by films, tabloid headlines, and decades of sensationalist media coverage — are a significant reason why.
Here are seven of the most dangerous myths about the great white shark, and the truth that lies behind each one.
Introduction: The Shark That Needs a Reputation Rescue
Before we get to the myths, consider this single statistic: in an average year, great white sharks kill between 5 and 10 people worldwide. In that same year, humans kill approximately 100 million sharks — including tens of thousands of great whites. The animal that the world fears as a mindless killing machine is, in reality, one of the most persecuted creatures on the planet.
The great white shark is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Its global population is estimated at fewer than 3,500 individuals — making it rarer than the African lion. It has been protected in many countries, but illegal fishing, bycatch, and the fin trade continue to drive its decline.
Understanding the truth about great white sharks is not just an academic exercise. It is a conservation imperative.
Myth 1: Great White Sharks Are Mindless Killing Machines
This is the foundational myth — the one that Jaws burned into the global consciousness and that every subsequent shark film has reinforced. The great white shark as a relentless, vengeful predator that hunts humans with malicious intent.
The reality is almost the opposite. Great white sharks are highly intelligent, curious, and cautious animals. Research has shown that they have distinct personalities, form long-term social relationships, and engage in complex investigative behaviour when encountering unfamiliar objects — including humans.
When a great white shark “attacks” a human, it is almost never predatory. Sharks investigate unfamiliar objects with their mouths — they have no hands. A bite from a great white is usually an investigatory behaviour, not a predatory one. The shark bites, realises the human is not its preferred prey, and leaves. The tragedy is that a single investigatory bite from an animal with teeth the size of a human thumb can cause catastrophic injury — but the intent is curiosity, not malice.
Myth 2: Great White Sharks Love to Eat Humans
Great white sharks do not eat humans. This is not a matter of opinion — it is a documented biological fact. Great white sharks are specialist predators of marine mammals — seals, sea lions, dolphins, and whale carcasses. These animals have the high fat content that great whites need to fuel their enormous, warm-blooded bodies.
Humans are bony, low in fat, and nutritionally unappealing to a great white shark. In the vast majority of shark “attacks,” the shark bites once and does not return — because it has determined that the human is not worth eating. If great white sharks wanted to eat humans, the death toll would be orders of magnitude higher than it is.
Myth 3: Shark-Infested Waters Are Dangerous
The phrase “shark-infested waters” — beloved of tabloid newspapers and television documentaries — implies that the presence of sharks makes water dangerous. In reality, the presence of sharks is a sign of a healthy, functioning ocean ecosystem.
Great white sharks are apex predators. Their presence regulates the populations of the marine mammals they prey on, which in turn shapes the entire marine food web. Oceans without sharks are ecologically impoverished — a phenomenon that has been documented in areas where shark populations have collapsed due to overfishing.
The statistical reality is that swimming in “shark-infested waters” is extraordinarily safe. You are more likely to be killed by a vending machine, struck by lightning, or drowned in your own bathtub than killed by a shark.
Myth 4: Shark Culls Make Beaches Safer
Following high-profile shark incidents, governments have repeatedly responded with shark culls — killing large numbers of sharks in the belief that this makes beaches safer. Australia, South Africa, and other countries have used drum lines, shark nets, and targeted culling programmes for decades.
The scientific evidence is clear: shark culls do not make beaches safer. They kill enormous numbers of non-target species — dolphins, turtles, rays, and other sharks — without meaningfully reducing the risk of shark encounters. Great white sharks are wide-ranging animals that travel thousands of kilometres; removing individuals from a local area has no lasting effect on the population using that coastline.
What does work is better beach surveillance, personal sonar devices, and education about when and where to swim — measures that protect people without killing sharks.
Myth 5: Great White Sharks Are Everywhere
Great white sharks are actually rare. With a global population estimated at fewer than 3,500 individuals, they are rarer than many animals that appear on endangered species lists. They are found in temperate and subtropical waters around the world — with significant populations off South Africa, southern Australia, and the coast of California — but they are not the ubiquitous ocean predators of popular imagination.
Their rarity makes every individual significant. Great white sharks are slow to mature — they do not reach sexual maturity until they are 15 years old — and females give birth to only 2 to 10 pups every two to three years. This means that populations recover extremely slowly from losses, and that the death of every individual has a meaningful impact on the species.
Myth 6: Great White Sharks Are Solitary
The image of the great white shark as a lone predator, prowling the ocean in solitary menace, is another myth. Research using satellite tagging has revealed that great white sharks have complex social lives — they form loose associations with other individuals, have preferred companions, and maintain long-term relationships over years and even decades.
Studies off the coast of California have documented great white sharks travelling together, feeding together, and returning to the same locations year after year with the same companions. Some individuals have been observed together repeatedly over periods of more than a decade — suggesting social bonds that are far more sophisticated than previously imagined.
Myth 7: There Is Nothing We Can Do to Save Them
This is perhaps the most dangerous myth of all — the counsel of despair that says the great white shark’s decline is inevitable and irreversible.
It is not. Great white shark populations have shown signs of recovery in areas where they have been given effective legal protection and where fishing pressure has been reduced. In South Africa, where great whites have been protected since 1991, populations stabilised and began to recover. In California, where great whites have been protected since 1994, similar trends have been observed.
The tools for great white shark conservation exist: legal protection, reduction of bycatch, elimination of the fin trade, and — perhaps most importantly — changing the public narrative about sharks from fear to fascination.
That last tool is the one you are using right now, by reading this article.
The Truth About Great White Sharks
The great white shark is not a monster. It is a 3.5-million-year-old apex predator that plays an irreplaceable role in the health of the world’s oceans. It is intelligent, curious, socially complex, and — despite everything the movies have told you — deeply uninterested in eating humans.
It is also running out of time. With fewer than 3,500 individuals remaining and populations continuing to decline in many parts of the world, the great white shark needs a reputation rescue as urgently as it needs legal protection.
The first step is replacing fear with understanding. And understanding begins with the truth.
Go Deeper
Everything you need to know about the great white shark — its biology, behaviour, hunting strategies, global distribution, and conservation status — is covered in our premium Great White Shark Wildlife Guide.