#2014 · 🦈 sharks & rays
Great White Shark
🇳🇱 Witte Haai ·Carcharodon carcharias
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The great white shark ( Carcharodon carcharias ), commonly known as the great white or the white shark , is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. 1 m (20 ft) in length and 1,905 kg (4,200 lb) in weight at maturity. 0 m (11 to 13 ft) and...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 1,575 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Can weigh about 1 tonnes: as much as 1 cars.
- Can live up to 73 years.
- Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).
- Listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
fact sheet
- English
- Great White Shark
- Nederlands
- Witte Haai
- scientific name
- Carcharodon carcharias
- class
- Chondrichthyes
- order
- Lamniformes
- family
- Lamnidae
- IUCN Red List
- VU · vulnerable
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings in Europe
- 13
- sightings worldwide
- 1,575
- GBIF records in NL
- 17
- weight
- 1.1 t
- length
- —
- lifespan
- 73 years
- named
- 1758
IUCN in Dutch: kwetsbaar. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 50873, Wikidata Q129026, GBIF 2420694, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.