An increasing presence of great white sharks in the Gulf of Mexico has been verified by satellite and acoustic tagging technology.
And this has spawned a huge level of public interest in the species across the Gulf region.
More angers, divers and boaters are on the lookout for the species and while this is a good thing it opens up opportunities for misidentification. There are sharks that have a similar appearance.
The great white shark stands as the only acknowledged living species within the Carcharodon genus, and it constitutes one of five surviving species within the Lamnidae family. Alongside the great white, the family encompasses mako sharks, porbeagle, and salmon sharks. This familial group falls under Lamniformes, the order to which mackerel sharks belong.
The salmon shark, which in my opinion, at first glance looks closest to the great white is a Pacific dweller with no Gulf population.
Makos and porbeagles are however present. This NOAA comparison of carcasses show comparisons.
California wildlife officials put out a comparison chart for the Pacific that does a better job in pointing out differences between a great white and a mako but replaces the porbeagle with the salmon shark.
It would be difficult to mistake a white shark as large as some of the 2,000 plus pounders verified in Gulf waters with any of these. The girth is just astounding on a white at around 14 feet in length.
However, there is another shark that gets huge someone could mistake, especially when seeing a shark from the vantage point of a boat without getting a good look at its head.
Some people see a huge shark and automatically think, “Jaws”!
I’m talking about the tiger shark.
Tiger sharks get huge (regularly 12 foot plus) and sport some impressive girth but besides the stripes that give them their name which can be faint, their head looks nothing like a great white. But people can easily miss it if they see a 12-14 footer.
There’s no crime in misidentifying a shark. It happens.
But with citizen science a part of the great white shark comeback story with attention being paid to anecdotal observations, it pays to be informed.
The great white shark steals all the attention. After all, there’s no blog called gulfporbeagles.com.
But that doesn’t mean if you see one of their cousins or a shark on par with their size like a massive tiger, your experience is diminished.
Those sharks are awesome.
Great whites are just more awesome and certainly more iconic.
Chester Moore
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