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Nature's perfect killing machine, right here in the waters of the Sunshine State??? In scores of movies and novels, great white sharks have terrorized millions of people as they chew their way through boats, buoys and beach vacationers. But these incidents happen in far away places, where waters are relatively cool such as California or South Australia, places with water temperatures much cooler than the waters of Santa Rosa Sound, Tampa Bay or anywhere else in the Gulf of Mexico. Surely there’s not much swimming about in our local waters to be of interest to these apex predators. Even our plumpest Yankee tourist is slim pickings compared to a Cape fur seal such as the ones tossed about like toys made famous on documentaries filmed on the coast of South Africa. But these sharks have been swimming about in our waters for millennia, and are still a vital part of the marine ecosystem. Join author and wildlife historian John Hairr as he takes a fresh look at the nearly forgotten story of Carcharodon carcharias in the waters of the southeastern United States. Did you know that two of the largest great white sharks ever landed were caught by fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico? Or that the record for holding a great white shark in captivity was one set by aquarists working in the humble facilities at Marineland of Florida in the middle of the twentieth century, a record yet to be eclipsed?
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