Editing Great white shark (section)

=== Shark bite incidents ===
{{Main|Shark attack}}

Of all shark species, the great white shark is responsible for by far the largest number of recorded shark bite incidents on humans, with 351 documented unprovoked bite incidents on humans as of 2024.<ref name="isaf" />

More than any documented bite incident, [[Peter Benchley]]'s best-selling novel ''[[Jaws (novel)|Jaws]]'' and the subsequent [[Jaws (film)|1975 film adaptation]] directed by [[Steven Spielberg]] provided the great white shark with the image of being a "[[Man-eating animal|man-eater]]" in the public mind.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Peter |last=Benchley |date=April 2000 |title=Great white sharks |journal=[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]] |page=12 |quote=considering the knowledge accumulated about sharks in the last 25 years, I couldn't possibly write Jaws today ... not in good conscience anyway ... back then, it was OK to demonize an animal. |issn=0027-9358}}</ref> While great white sharks have killed humans in at least 74 documented unprovoked bite incidents, they typically do not target them: for example, in the [[Mediterranean Sea]] there have been 31 confirmed bite incidents against humans in the last two centuries, most of which were non-fatal. Many of the incidents seemed to be "test-bites". Great white sharks also test-bite [[buoy]]s, [[flotsam]], and other unfamiliar objects, and they might grab a human or a [[surfboard]] to identify what it is.
[[File:Surfacing great white shark.jpg|thumb|left|The great white shark is one of only four kinds of shark that have been involved in a significant number of fatal unprovoked attacks on humans.|alt=Photo of open-mouthed shark at surface.]]

Many bite incidents occur in waters with low visibility or other situations which impair the shark's senses. The species appears to not like the taste of humans, or at least finds the taste unfamiliar. Further research shows that they can tell in one bite whether or not the object is worth predating upon. Humans, for the most part, are too bony for their liking. They much prefer seals, which are fat and rich in protein.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/white_shark/mistaken_identity.htm |title=White Shark Attacks: Mistaken Identity |last=Martin |first=R. Aidan |year=2003 |website=Biology of Sharks and Rays |publisher=ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research |access-date=30 August 2016 |archive-date=5 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160905153552/http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/white_shark/mistaken_identity.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

Studies published in 2021 by Ryan ''et al.'' in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface suggest that mistaken identity is in fact a case for many shark bite incidents perpetrated by great white sharks. Using cameras and footage of seals in aquariums as models and mounted cameras moving at the same speed and angle as a cruising great white shark looking up at the surface from below, the experiment suggests that the sharks are likely colorblind and cannot see in fine enough detail to determine whether the silhouette above them is a pinniped or a swimming human, potentially vindicating the hypothesis.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=A shark's eye view: testing the 'mistaken identity theory' behind shark bites on humans |first1=Laura A. |last1=Ryan |first2=David J. |last2=Slip |first3=Lucille |last3=Chapuis |first4=Shaun P. |last4=Collin |first5=Enrico |last5=Gennari |first6=Jan M. |last6=Hemmi |first7=Martin J. |last7=How |first8=Charlie |last8=Huveneers |first9=Victor M. |last9=Peddemors|first10=Louise|last10=Tosetto |first11=Nathan S. |last11=Hart |journal=Journal of the Royal Society Interface |year=2021 |volume=18 |issue=183 |pages=20210533 |doi=10.1098/rsif.2021.0533 |pmid=34699727 |pmc=8548079}}</ref>

Humans are not appropriate prey because the shark's digestion is too slow to cope with a human's high ratio of bone to muscle and fat. Accordingly, in most recorded shark bite incidents, great whites broke off contact after the first bite. Fatalities are usually caused by blood loss from the initial bite rather than from critical organ loss or from whole consumption. {{As of|2024}}, of the 351 recorded unprovoked attacks, 59 were fatal.<ref>{{cite web |title=ISAF Statistics for Worldwide Unprovoked White Shark Attacks Since 1990 |url=http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/White/whitesharkdecade.html |date=10 February 2011 |access-date=19 August 2011 |archive-date=27 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130127141416/http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/White/whitesharkdecade.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="isaf" />

However, some researchers have hypothesized that the reason the proportion of fatalities is low is not that sharks do not like human flesh, but because humans are often able to escape after the first bite. In the 1980s, John McCosker, chair of aquatic biology at the [[California Academy of Sciences]], noted that divers who dived solo and were bitten by great whites were generally at least partially consumed, while divers who followed the buddy system were generally rescued by their companion. McCosker and Timothy C. Tricas, an author and professor at the [[University of Hawaii]], suggest that a standard pattern for great whites is to make an initial devastating attack and then wait for the prey to weaken before consuming the wounded animal. Humans' ability to move out of reach with the help of others, thus foiling the attack, is unusual for a great white's prey.<ref>{{cite journal |first=T.C. |last=Tricas |author2=McCosker, John |journal=Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences |series=Series 4 |title=Predatory behavior of the white shark, ''Carcharodon carcharias'', and notes on its biology |volume=43 |issue=14 |pages=221–238 |year=1984 |url=https://archive.org/details/cbarchive_109514_predatorybehaviourofthewhitesh1982}}</ref>