A shark’s sharp teeth aren’t the only reason we find them so scary---their ability to smell blood in the water, even from a long distance, is also a big factor. We know they’ll find us.

But how do they know what direction to swim in order to find a wounded fish (or person)? Conventional wisdom says that they follow trails of scent based on differences in the concentration of odour molecules detected by each nostril. Not so, say marine biologists in a new study in the journal Current Biology. They say it’s all in the timing.

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Thanks to media hype like Jaws and Finding Nemo, white sharks are the ocean's most iconic and feared fish. But we know surprisingly little about them.

Much of what we think we know about great white sharks simply isn’t true. They aren’t mindless killers, they aren’t always loners, and they are much smarter than scientists gave them credit in the past.

Meeting a great white shark in the wild is nothing like you expect it would be. At first glance, it’s not the zeppelin beast we’ve come to expect from a thousand TV shows. It’s portly, bordering on fat, like an overstuffed sausage. The world’s greatest predator is little more than a slack-jawed buffoon.

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"Welcome to Gansbaai the Great Gold shark capital of the world!! We currently experience incredible diving interaction with Bronze whaler/copper sharks, a near threatened species more associated with the sardine run and small pelagic fish species here in SA! Such beautiful colouration to them, stunning sharks". –Ali Towner – local Marine Biologist

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