From this data collected at the Farallon Islands, we now know that most Great White attacks occur during the day in late summer or early winter. Furthermore, the attacks also took place at around the same time each day, most likely due to the tide schedule.

Going back to the observational data, some interesting differences in attack strategies were noted based on the species of the shark's prey. For example, in the case seals, the great white often attacks just beneath the surface by rising from below. A large elongating blood stain at the surface indicates that the shark carries the seal underwater for a distance before removing a bite and releasing the carcass which then floats to the surface. When this initial attack took place near the head of the seal, an area rich with networks of blood vessels, death by exsanguination (loss of blood) or decapitation was the norm. On other occasions, the GW would disable the seal by attacking from behind, biting the strong hind flipper. Nature is pretty grisly stuff, huh?

Attacks are usually observed with the sea lion at the surface of the water, the Great White strikes brutally, throwing itself out of the water with the sea lion clamped in its jaws. The sea lion, flounders at the surface until the shark returns for the final kill and feeding.













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What path does the shark take when attacking? Does the shark travel in a horizontal manner beneath its prey before striking or does it prefer the vertical attack made famous by the poster for Mr. Spielberg's most famous fish story? Turns out Hollywood got it right. The GW likes to attack from a deep angle (45-90 degrees) below the prey item. Is this because there are a limited number of other attack vectors or because this is the best way to catch dinner?

An attacker from below is harder to spot and also to elude. Think about it - for many reasons, a shark deeper than its potential meal is less visible than a shark swimming on the same plane. The greater the angle from and the further below the shark is from a seal means the seal is going to have a tough time seeing it before it becomes a statistic in a South Farallon Island study.

At the same time, a seal's best approach to evade the GW is to bust a move quickly in the opposite direction of the shark's attack. However, a seal attacked from below can realistically only travel up . . . and there's only so far it can go in that direction before the shark sinks it's teeth in.