Great White Shark

Carcharodon carcharias

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Elasmobranchii
Order: Lamniformes
Family: Lamnidae
Genus: Carcharodon
Species: Carcharodon carcharias

The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is the largest predatory fish, with females exceeding 5 m. It has a heavy, torpedo-shaped body, a conical snout, a grey back sharply divided from a white belly, and large triangular serrated teeth.

Great whites are wide-ranging predators of seals, large fish, other sharks and whale carcasses, and they can migrate thousands of kilometres across open ocean. The species is listed as Vulnerable.

In the Philippines great white sharks are exceptionally rare, known from only a handful of historical records in offshore waters. They are not part of the regular Philippine dive experience, and any confirmed sighting would be highly unusual.

Photo: brendanboyd, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist