Hint: it’s the same thing you do when you’re chilly! Just like their counterparts on dry land, groups of marine animals have names that can be pretty surprising. Take our quiz and see how well you do! Answers are listed below. Show
Group name options: Army, Bed, Cast, Rookery, Run, School, Shiver, Smack, Raft, Walk, Wreck  Answers: Common Name: Great White Shark Scientific Name: Carcharodon carcharias Group Name: School, shoal Size: 15 feet to more than 20 feet Size relative to a bus: While the shark in Jaws was inspired by a great white shark in New Jersey, the legendary fish is far less fearsome in reality. As scientific research on these elusive predators increases, their image as mindless killing machines is beginning to fade. Found in cool, coastal waters around the world, great whites are the largest predatory fish on Earth. They grow to an average of 15 feet in length, though specimens exceeding 20 feet and weighing up to 5,000 pounds have been recorded. They have slate-gray upper bodies to blend in with the rocky coastal sea floor, but they get their name from their white underbellies. They're streamlined, torpedo-shaped swimmers with powerful tails that can propel them through the water at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour. They can even leave the water completely, breaching like whales when attacking prey from underneath. Hunting and dietHighly adapted predators, their mouths are lined with up to 300 serrated, triangular teeth arranged in several rows, and they have an exceptional sense of smell to detect prey. They even have organs that can sense the tiny electromagnetic fields generated by animals. Their prey includes other sharks, crustaceans, molluscs, and sea birds. Larger whtie sharks will also prey on sea lions, seals, and small toothed whales like orcas. The species has even been seen feeding on dead whales. Shark attacksOf the 100-plus annual shark attacks worldwide, a third to a half are attributed to great white sharks. Most of these, however, are not fatal. Research finds that great whites, which are naturally curious, often "sample bite" then release their human target. It's not a terribly comforting distinction, but it does indicate that humans are not actually on the great white's menu. Fatal attacks, experts say, are typically cases of mistaken identity: Swimmers and surfers can look a lot like their favorite prey—seals—when seen from below. Population and conservationThere is no reliable population data for the great white shark, but scientists agree that their number are decreasing precipitously. Overfishing and getting accidentally caught in fishing nets are their two biggest threats. The species is classified as vulnerable—one step away from endangered—by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. WATCH: Photographing Great White Sharks off Cape Cod In recent years great white sharks have been showing up annually in the waters off the Cape Cod seashore, and unlike the great whites of Australia or South Africa, these sharks don't respond to the usual underwater photographers' techniques. They're not used to humans, so a cage won't work. So what's a photographer to do? <p>Great whites are torpedo-shaped with powerful tails that can propel them through the water at up to 15 miles per hour.</p> Great whites are torpedo-shaped with powerful tails that can propel them through the water at up to 15 miles per hour. When a great white shark is born, along with up to a dozen siblings, it immediately swims away from its mother. Born on the east and west coasts of North America, the south of Africa and southwest Australia, baby sharks are on their own right from the start. Their mother may see them only as prey. Common Name: Great White Shark Scientific Name: Carcharodon carcharias Group Name: School, shoal Size: 15 feet to more than 20 feet At birth a baby great white shark is already about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long; as it grows it may reach a length up to four times that. The pup (which is what a baby shark is called) will live its life at the top of the ocean's food chain. But before it grows larger, the pup must avoid predators bigger than it is—including other great white sharks. Many baby sharks do not survive their first year. Young great white sharks eat fish (including other sharks) and rays. As they grow, the sharks’ favorite prey becomes sea mammals, especially sea lions and seals. Sharks count on the element of surprise as they hunt. When they see a seal at the surface of the water, sharks will often position themselves underneath the seal. Using their tails as propellers, they swim upward at a fast sprint, burst out of the water in a leap called a breach, and fall back into the water with the seal in their mouths. They can smell a single drop of blood from up to a third of a mile (0.53 kilometers) away. Sharks don't chew their food; they rip off chunks of meat and swallow them whole. They can last a month or two without another big meal. Cool Facts About Sharks Sharks are smart, sleek and totally misunderstood. Discover what they eat, how they spot prey, their sense of smell and other cool facts you didn’t know about sharks on this episode of Things You Wanna Know. The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. It is notable for its size, with larger female individuals growing to 6.1 m (20 ft) in length and 1,905–2,268 kg (4,200–5,000 lb) in weight at maturity.[3][4][5] However, most are smaller; males measure 3.4 to 4.0 m (11 to 13 ft), and females measure 4.6 to 4.9 m (15 to 16 ft) on average.[4][6] According to a 2014 study, the lifespan of great white sharks is estimated to be as long as 70 years or more, well above previous estimates,[7] making it one of the longest lived cartilaginous fishes currently known.[8] According to the same study, male great white sharks take 26 years to reach sexual maturity, while the females take 33 years to be ready to produce offspring.[9] Great white sharks can swim at speeds of 25 km/hr (16 mph)[10] for short bursts and to depths of 1,200 m (3,900 ft).[11] Temporal range: Conservation status Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)[1] CITES Appendix II (CITES)[2] Scientific classificationA. Smith, 1838 Species: C. carcharias Binomial name Carcharodon carcharias(Linnaeus, 1758)
The great white shark is an apex predator, as it has no known natural predators other than, on very rare occasions, the orca.[12] It is arguably the world's largest-known extant macropredatory fish, and is one of the primary predators of marine mammals, up to the size of large baleen whales. This shark is also known to prey upon a variety of other marine animals, including fish, and seabirds. It is the only known surviving species of its genus Carcharodon, and is responsible for more recorded human bite incidents than any other shark.[13][14] The species faces numerous ecological challenges which has resulted in international protection. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the great white shark as a vulnerable species,[1] and it is included in Appendix II of CITES.[15] It is also protected by several national governments, such as Australia (as of 2018).[16] Due to their need to travel long distances for seasonal migration and extremely demanding diet, it is not logistically feasible to keep great white sharks in captivity; because of this, while attempts have been made to do so in the past, there are no known aquariums in the world believed to house a live specimen.[17] The novel Jaws by Peter Benchley and its subsequent film adaptation by Steven Spielberg depicted the great white shark as a ferocious man-eater. Humans are not a preferred prey of the great white shark,[18] but the great white is nevertheless responsible for the largest number of reported and identified fatal unprovoked shark attacks on humans, although this happens very rarely (typically fewer than 10 times a year globally).[19][20] The great white is the sole recognized extant species in the genus Carcharodon, and is one of five extant species belonging to the family Lamnidae.[21] Other members of this family include the mako sharks, porbeagle, and salmon shark. The family belongs to the Lamniformes, the order of mackerel sharks.[22] Etymology and naming historyThe name 'great white shark' likely comes from the shark's size, as well as the white underside exposed on beached sharks. The English name 'white shark' and its Australian variant 'white pointer'[23] is thought to have come from the shark's stark white underside, a characteristic feature most noticeable in beached sharks lying upside down with their bellies exposed.[24] Colloquial use favours the name ‘great white shark’, perhaps because ‘great’ stresses the size and prowess of the species.[25] Another reason might be that "white shark" was a term historically used to describe the oceanic white-tipped shark, and thus, being much larger than the latter shark, it was named "Great" as the "white" part of its name was already used for another shark, which was subsequently referred to as the "lesser white shark". Most scientists prefer ‘white shark’, due to the fact the name "lesser white shark" is no longer used.[25] Some use ‘white shark’ to refer to all members of the Lamnidae.[22] The scientific genus name Carcharodon literally means "jagged tooth", a reference to the large serrations that appear in the shark's teeth. Broken down, it is a portmanteau of two Ancient Greek words. The prefix carchar- is derived from καρχαρίας (kárkharos), which means "jagged" or "sharp". The suffix -odon is a romanization of ὀδών (odṓn), a which translates to "tooth". The specific name carcharias is a Latinization of καρχαρίας (karkharías), the Ancient Greek word for shark.[21] The great white shark was one of the species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, in which it was identified as an amphibian and assigned the scientific name Squalus carcharias, Squalus being the genus that he placed all sharks in.[26] By the 1810s, it was recognized that the shark should be placed in a new genus, but it was not until 1838 when Sir Andrew Smith coined the name Carcharodon as the new genus.[27] There have been a few attempts to describe and classify the great white before Linnaeus. One of its earliest mentions in literature as a distinct type of animal appears in Pierre Belon's 1553 book De aquatilibus duo, cum eiconibus ad vivam ipsorum effigiem quoad ejus fieri potuit, ad amplissimum cardinalem Castilioneum. In it, he illustrated and described the shark under the name Canis carcharias based on the jagged nature of its teeth and its alleged similarities with dogs.[a] Another name used for the great white around this time was Lamia, first coined by Guillaume Rondelet in his 1554 book Libri de Piscibus Marinis, who also identified it as the fish that swallowed the prophet Jonah in biblical texts.[28] Linnaeus recognized both names as previous classifications.[26] Fossil ancestry
Molecular clock studies published between 1988 and 2002 determined the closest living relative of the great white to be the mako sharks of the genus Isurus, which diverged some time between 60 to 43 million years ago.[30][31] Tracing this evolutionary relationship through fossil evidence, however, remains subject to further paleontological study.[31] The original hypothesis of the great white shark's origin held that it is a descendant of a lineage of mega-toothed sharks, and is closely related to the prehistoric megalodon.[31][32] These sharks were considerably large in size, with megalodon attaining an estimated length of up to 14.2–16 m (47–52 ft).[33][34] Similarities between the teeth of great white and mega-toothed sharks, such as large triangular shapes, serrated blades, and the presence of dental bands, led the primary evidence of a close evolutionary relationship. As a result, scientists classified the ancient forms under the genus Carcharodon. Although weaknesses in the hypothesis existed, such as uncertainty over exactly which species evolved into the modern great white and multiple gaps in the fossil record, paleontologists were able to chart the hypothetical lineage back to a 60-million-year-old shark known as Cretalamna as the common ancestor of all sharks within the Lamnidae.[30][32] Illustrated evolution from C. hastalis to C. carcharias However, it is now understood that the great white shark holds closer ties to the mako sharks and is descended from a separate lineage as a chronospecies unrelated to the mega-toothed sharks.[31] This was proven with the discovery of a transitional species that connected the great white to an unserrated shark known as Carcharodon hastalis.[35][36] This transitional species, which was named Carcharodon hubbelli in 2012, demonstrated a mosaic of evolutionary transitions between the great white and C. hastalis, namely the gradual appearance of serrations,[35] in a span of between 8 to 5 million years ago.[37] The progression of C. hubbelli characterized shifting diets and niches; by 6.5 million years ago, the serrations were developed enough for C. hubbelli to handle marine mammals.[35] Although both the great white and C. hastalis were known worldwide,[31] C. hubbelli is primarily found in California, Peru, Chile, and surrounding coastal deposits,[38] indicating that the great white had Pacific origins.[35] C. hastalis continued to thrive alongside the great white until its last appearance around one million years ago[39] and is believed to have possibly sired a number of additional species, including Carcharodon subserratus[31][35] and Carcharodon plicatilis.[31] However, Yun argued that the tooth fossil remains of C. hastalis and Great White Shark "have been documented from the same deposits, hence the former cannot be a chronospecific ancestor of the latter." He also criticized that the C. hastalis "morphotype has never been tested through phylogenetic analyses," and denoted that as of 2021, the argument that the modern Carcharodon lineage with narrow, serrated teeth evolved from C. hastalis with a broad, unserrated teeth is uncertain.[40] Tracing beyond C. hastalis, another prevailing hypothesis proposes that the great white and mako lineages shared a common ancestor in a primitive mako-like species.[41] The identity of this ancestor is still debated, but a potential species includes Isurolamna inflata, which lived between 65 to 55 million years ago. It is hypothesized that the great white and mako lineages split with the rise of two separate descendants, the one representing the great white shark lineage being Macrorhizodus praecursor.[41][42] Shark in Guadalupe Island Biosphere Reserve, Mexico Great white sharks live in almost all coastal and offshore waters which have water temperature between 12 and 24 °C (54 and 75 °F), with greater concentrations in the United States (Northeast and California), South Africa, Japan, Oceania, Chile, and the Mediterranean including Sea of Marmara and Bosphorus.[43][44] One of the densest-known populations is found around Dyer Island, South Africa.[45] Juvenile great white sharks inhabit a more narrow band of temperatures (between 14 and 24 °C (57 and 75 °F)) in shallow coastal nurseries.[46] Increased observation of young sharks in areas they were not previously common, such as Monterey Bay on the Central California coast, suggest climate change may be reducing the range of juvenile great white sharks and shifting it toward the poles.[47] The great white is an epipelagic fish, observed mostly in the presence of rich game, such as fur seals (Arctocephalus ssp.), sea lions, cetaceans, other sharks, and large bony fish species. In the open ocean, it has been recorded at depths as great as 1,200 m (3,900 ft).[11] These findings challenge the traditional notion that the great white is a coastal species.[11] According to a recent study, California great whites have migrated to an area between Baja California Peninsula and Hawaii known as the White Shark Café to spend at least 100 days before migrating back to Baja. On the journey out, they swim slowly and dive down to around 900 m (3,000 ft). After they arrive, they change behaviour and do short dives to about 300 m (980 ft) for up to ten minutes. Another white shark that was tagged off the South African coast swam to the southern coast of Australia and back within the year. A similar study tracked a different great white shark from South Africa swimming to Australia's northwestern coast and back, a journey of 20,000 km (12,000 mi; 11,000 nmi) in under nine months.[48] These observations argue against traditional theories that white sharks are coastal territorial predators, and open up the possibility of interaction between shark populations that were previously thought to have been discrete. The reasons for their migration and what they do at their destination is still unknown. Possibilities include seasonal feeding or mating.[49] In the Northwest Atlantic, the white shark populations off the New England coast were nearly eradicated due to over-fishing.[50] In recent years, the populations have grown greatly,[51] largely due to the increase in seal populations on Cape Cod, Massachusetts since the enactment of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972.[52] Currently very little is known about the hunting and movement patterns of great whites off Cape Cod, but ongoing studies hope to offer insight into this growing shark population.[53] The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (part of the Department of Fish and Game) began a population study in 2014; since 2019, this research has focused on how humans can avoid conflict with sharks.[54] A 2018 study indicated that white sharks prefer to congregate deep in anticyclonic eddies in the North Atlantic Ocean. The sharks studied tended to favour the warm-water eddies, spending the daytime hours at 450 meters and coming to the surface at night.[55]
Upper teeth
Lower teeth Great white shark's skeleton The great white shark has a robust, large, conical snout. The upper and lower lobes on the tail fin are approximately the same size which is similar to some mackerel sharks. A great white displays countershading, by having a white underside and a grey dorsal area (sometimes in a brown or blue shade) that gives an overall mottled appearance. The coloration makes it difficult for prey to spot the shark because it breaks up the shark's outline when seen from the side. From above, the darker shade blends with the sea and from below it exposes a minimal silhouette against the sunlight. Leucism is extremely rare in this species, but has been documented in one great white shark (a pup that washed ashore in Australia and died).[56] Great white sharks, like many other sharks, have rows of serrated teeth behind the main ones, ready to replace any that break off. When the shark bites, it shakes its head side-to-side, helping the teeth saw off large chunks of flesh.[57] Great white sharks, like other mackerel sharks, have larger eyes than other shark species in proportion to their body size. The iris of the eye is a deep blue instead of black.[58] SizeSpecimen caught off Cuba in 1945 which was allegedly 6.4 m (21 ft) long and weighed an estimated 3,175–3,324 kg (7,000–7,328 lb).[59][60] Later studies proved this specimen to be in the normal size range, at around 4.9 m (16 ft) in length.[4] In great white sharks, sexual dimorphism is present, and females are generally larger than males. Male great whites on average measure 3.4 to 4.0 m (11 to 13 ft) long, while females at 4.6 to 4.9 m (15 to 16 ft).[6] Adults of this species weigh 522–771 kg (1,151–1,700 lb) on average;[61] however, mature females can have an average mass of 680–1,110 kg (1,500–2,450 lb).[4] The largest females have been verified up to 6.1 m (20 ft) in length and an estimated 1,905 kg (4,200 lb) in weight,[4] perhaps up to 2,268 kg (5,000 lb).[5] The maximum size is subject to debate because some reports are rough estimations or speculations performed under questionable circumstances.[62] Among living cartilaginous fish, only the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), the basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) and the giant manta ray (Manta birostris), in that order, are on average larger and heavier. These three species are generally quite docile in disposition and given to passively filter-feeding on very small organisms.[61] This makes the great white shark the largest extant macropredatory fish. Great white sharks are at around 1.2 m (3.9 ft) when born, and grow about 25 cm (9.8 in) each year.[63] According to J. E. Randall, the largest white shark reliably measured was a 5.94 m (19.5 ft) individual reported from Ledge Point, Western Australia in 1987.[64] Another great white specimen of similar size has been verified by the Canadian Shark Research Center: A female caught by David McKendrick of Alberton, Prince Edward Island, in August 1988 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off Prince Edward Island. This female great white was 6.1 m (20 ft) long.[4] However, there was a report considered reliable by some experts in the past, of a larger great white shark specimen from Cuba in 1945.[60][65][66][67] This specimen was reportedly 6.4 m (21 ft) long and had a body mass estimated at 3,324 kg (7,328 lb).[60][66] However, later studies also revealed that this particular specimen was actually around 4.9 m (16 ft) in length, a specimen in the average maximum size range.[4] The largest great white recognized by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) is one caught by Alf Dean in south Australian waters in 1959, weighing 1,208 kg (2,663 lb).[62] Examples of large unconfirmed great whitesA number of very large unconfirmed great white shark specimens have been recorded.[68] For decades, many ichthyological works, as well as the Guinness Book of World Records, listed two great white sharks as the largest individuals: In the 1870s, a 10.9 m (36 ft) great white captured in southern Australian waters, near Port Fairy, and an 11.3 m (37 ft) shark trapped in a herring weir in New Brunswick, Canada, in the 1930s. However, these measurements were not obtained in a rigorous, scientifically valid manner, and researchers have questioned the reliability of these measurements for a long time, noting they were much larger than any other accurately reported sighting. Later studies proved these doubts to be well-founded. This New Brunswick shark may have been a misidentified basking shark, as the two have similar body shapes. The question of the Port Fairy shark was settled in the 1970s when J. E. Randall examined the shark's jaws and "found that the Port Fairy shark was of the order of 5 m (16 ft) in length and suggested that a mistake had been made in the original record, in 1870, of the shark's length".[64] Great white shark caught off Hualien County, Taiwan, on 14 May 1997: It was reportedly (unconfirmed) almost 7 m (23 ft) in length with a mass of 2,500 kg (5,500 lb).[68] While these measurements have not been confirmed, some great white sharks caught in modern times have been estimated to be more than 7 m (23 ft) long,[69] but these claims have received some criticism.[62][69] However, J. E. Randall believed that great white shark may have exceeded 6.1 m (20 ft) in length.[64] A great white shark was captured near Kangaroo Island in Australia on 1 April 1987. This shark was estimated to be more than 6.9 m (23 ft) long by Peter Resiley,[64][70] and has been designated as KANGA.[69] Another great white shark was caught in Malta by Alfredo Cutajar on 16 April 1987. This shark was also estimated to be around 7.13 m (23.4 ft) long by John Abela and has been designated as MALTA.[69][71] However, Cappo drew criticism because he used shark size estimation methods proposed by J. E. Randall to suggest that the KANGA specimen was 5.8–6.4 m (19–21 ft) long.[69] In a similar fashion, I. K. Fergusson also used shark size estimation methods proposed by J. E. Randall to suggest that the MALTA specimen was 5.3–5.7 m (17–19 ft) long.[69] However, photographic evidence suggested that these specimens were larger than the size estimations yielded through Randall's methods.[69] Thus, a team of scientists—H. F. Mollet, G. M. Cailliet, A. P. Klimley, D. A. Ebert, A. D. Testi, and L. J. V. Compagno—reviewed the cases of the KANGA and MALTA specimens in 1996 to resolve the dispute by conducting a comprehensive morphometric analysis of the remains of these sharks and re-examination of photographic evidence in an attempt to validate the original size estimations and their findings were consistent with them. The findings indicated that estimations by P. Resiley and J. Abela are reasonable and could not be ruled out.[69] A particularly large female great white nicknamed "Deep Blue", estimated measuring at 6.1 m (20 ft) was filmed off Guadalupe during shooting for the 2014 episode of Shark Week "Jaws Strikes Back". Deep Blue would also later gain significant attention when she was filmed interacting with researcher Mauricio Hoyas Pallida in a viral video that Mauricio posted on Facebook on 11 June 2015.[72] Deep Blue was later seen off Oahu in January 2019 while scavenging a sperm whale carcass, whereupon she was filmed swimming beside divers including dive tourism operator and model Ocean Ramsey in open water.[73][74][75] In July 2019, a fisherman, J. B. Currell, was on a trip to Cape Cod from Bermuda with Tom Brownell when they saw a large shark about 40 mi (64 km) southeast of Martha's Vineyard. Recording it on video, he said that it weighed about 5,000 lb (2,300 kg), and measured 25–30 ft (7.6–9.1 m), evoking a comparison with the fictional shark Jaws. The video was shared with the page "Troy Dando Fishing" on Facebook.[76] A particularly infamous great white shark, supposedly of record proportions, once patrolled the area that comprises False Bay, South Africa, was said to be well over 7 m (23 ft) during the early 1980s. This shark, known locally as the "Submarine", had a legendary reputation that was supposedly well-founded. Though rumours have stated this shark was exaggerated in size or non-existent altogether, witness accounts by the then young Craig Anthony Ferreira, a notable shark expert in South Africa, and his father indicate an unusually large animal of considerable size and power (though it remains uncertain just how massive the shark was as it escaped capture each time it was hooked). Ferreira describes the four encounters with the giant shark he participated in with great detail in his book "Great White Sharks On Their Best Behavior".[77] One contender in maximum size among the predatory sharks is the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier). While tiger sharks which are typically both a few feet smaller and have a leaner, less heavy body structure than white sharks, have been confirmed to reach at least 5.5 m (18 ft) in the length, an unverified specimen was reported to have measured 7.4 m (24 ft) in length and weighed 3,110 kg (6,860 lb), more than two times heavier than the largest confirmed specimen at 1,524 kg (3,360 lb).[61][78][79] Some other macropredatory sharks such as the Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) and the Pacific sleeper shark (S. pacificus) are also reported to rival these sharks in length (but probably weigh a bit less since they are more slender in build than a great white) in exceptional cases.[80][81] Reported sizes
AdaptationsA great white shark swimming Great white sharks, like all other sharks, have an extra sense given by the ampullae of Lorenzini which enables them to detect the electromagnetic field emitted by the movement of living animals. Great whites are so sensitive they can detect variations of half a billionth of a volt. At close range, this allows the shark to locate even immobile animals by detecting their heartbeat.[99] Most fish have a less-developed but similar sense using their body's lateral line.[100] Shark biting into the fish head teaser bait next to a cage in False Bay, South Africa To more successfully hunt fast and agile prey such as sea lions, the great white has adapted to maintain a body temperature warmer than the surrounding water. One of these adaptations is a "rete mirabile" (Latin for "wonderful net"). This close web-like structure of veins and arteries, located along each lateral side of the shark, conserves heat by warming the cooler arterial blood with the venous blood that has been warmed by the working muscles. This keeps certain parts of the body (particularly the stomach) at temperatures up to 14 °C (25 °F) [101] above that of the surrounding water, while the heart and gills remain at sea temperature. When conserving energy, the core body temperature can drop to match the surroundings. A great white shark's success in raising its core temperature is an example of gigantothermy. Therefore, the great white shark can be considered an endothermic poikilotherm or mesotherm because its body temperature is not constant but is internally regulated.[57][102] Great whites also rely on the fat and oils stored within their livers for long-distance migrations across nutrient-poor areas of the oceans.[103] Studies by Stanford University and the Monterey Bay Aquarium published on 17 July 2013 revealed that in addition to controlling the sharks' buoyancy, the liver of great whites is essential in migration patterns. Sharks that sink faster during drift dives were revealed to use up their internal stores of energy quicker than those which sink in a dive at more leisurely rates.[104] Toxicity from heavy metals seems to have little negative effects on great white sharks. Blood samples taken from forty-three individuals of varying size, age and sex off the South African coast led by biologists from the University of Miami in 2012 indicates that despite high levels of mercury, lead, and arsenic, there was no sign of raised white blood cell count and granulate to lymphocyte ratios, indicating the sharks had healthy immune systems. This discovery suggests a previously unknown physiological defence against heavy metal poisoning. Great whites are known to have a propensity for "self-healing and avoiding age-related ailments".[105] Bite forceA 2007 study from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, used CT scans of a shark's skull and computer models to measure the shark's maximum bite force. The study reveals the forces and behaviours its skull is adapted to handle and resolves competing theories about its feeding behaviour.[106] In 2008, a team of scientists led by Stephen Wroe conducted an experiment to determine the great white shark's jaw power and findings indicated that a specimen massing 3,324 kg (7,328 lb) could exert a bite force of 18,216 newtons (4,095 lbf).[66] A shark turns onto its back while hunting tuna bait This shark's behaviour and social structure are complex.[107] In South Africa, white sharks have a dominance hierarchy depending on the size, sex and squatter's rights: Females dominate males, larger sharks dominate smaller sharks, and residents dominate newcomers. When hunting, great whites tend to separate and resolve conflicts with rituals and displays. White sharks rarely resort to combat although some individuals have been found with bite marks that match those of other white sharks. This suggests that when a great white approaches too closely to another, they react with a warning bite. Another possibility is that white sharks bite to show their dominance. Data acquired from animal-borne telemetry receivers and published in 2022 via the journal Royal Society Publishing suggests that individual great whites may associate so that they can inadvertently share information on the whereabouts of prey or the location of the remains of animals that can be scavenged. As biologging can help to reveal social habits, it allows a better understanding to be made in future studies regarding the full extent of social interactions in large marine animals, including the great white shark.[108] The great white shark is one of only a few sharks known to regularly lift its head above the sea surface to gaze at other objects such as prey. This is known as spy-hopping. This behaviour has also been seen in at least one group of blacktip reef sharks, but this might be learned from interaction with humans (it is theorized that the shark may also be able to smell better this way because smell travels through air faster than through water). White sharks are generally very curious animals, display intelligence and may also turn to socializing if the situation demands it. At Seal Island, white sharks have been observed arriving and departing in stable "clans" of two to six individuals on a yearly basis. Whether clan members are related is unknown, but they get along peacefully enough. In fact, the social structure of a clan is probably most aptly compared to that of a wolf pack; in that each member has a clearly established rank and each clan has an alpha leader. When members of different clans meet, they establish social rank nonviolently through any of a variety of interactions.[109] In 2022, research in South Africa suggested that the great white shark has the ability to change colours to camouflage itself depending on the hormones it gives off. Different hormones would change the colour of the skin from white to grey. Skin when dosed with adrenaline would turn the skin lighter, with the melanocyte-stimulating hormone causing the melanocyte cells to dissipate, making the shark's skin a dark colour. Although their ability to change colour depending on the hormones is not fully validated due to the limited number of great white sharks.[110] The camo shark hypothesis is supported by the fact that zebra sharks can change their colour as they age, and rainbow sharks can lose colour due to stress and aging.[111] DietA beachcomber looking at bite marks from a great white shark on a beached whale carcass Great white sharks are carnivorous and prey upon fish (e.g. tuna, rays, other sharks),[109] cetaceans (i.e., dolphins, porpoises, whales), pinnipeds (e.g. seals, fur seals,[109] and sea lions), sea turtles,[109] sea otters (Enhydra lutris) and seabirds.[112] Great whites have also been known to eat objects that they are unable to digest. Juvenile white sharks predominantly prey on fish, including other elasmobranchs, as their jaws are not strong enough to withstand the forces required to attack larger prey such as pinnipeds and cetaceans until they reach a length of 3 m (9.8 ft) or more, at which point their jaw cartilage mineralizes enough to withstand the impact of biting into larger prey species.[113] Upon approaching a length of nearly 4 m (13 ft), great white sharks begin to target predominantly marine mammals for food, though individual sharks seem to specialize in different types of prey depending on their preferences.[114][115] They seem to be highly opportunistic.[116][117] These sharks prefer prey with a high content of energy-rich fat. Shark expert Peter Klimley used a rod-and-reel rig and trolled carcasses of a seal, a pig, and a sheep from his boat in the South Farallons. The sharks attacked all three baits but rejected the sheep carcass.[118] Off of Seal Island, False Bay in South Africa, the sharks ambush brown fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus) from below at high speeds, hitting the seal mid-body. They achieve high speeds that allow them to completely breach the surface of the water. The peak burst speed is estimated to be above 40 km/h (25 mph).[119] They have also been observed chasing prey after a missed attack. Prey is usually attacked at the surface.[120] Shark attacks occur most often in the morning, within two hours of sunrise, when visibility is poor. Their success rate is 55% in the first two hours, falling to 40% in late morning after which hunting stops.[109] Off California, sharks immobilize northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) with a large bite to the hindquarters (which is the main source of the seal's mobility) and wait for the seal to bleed to death. This technique is especially used on adult male elephant seals, which are typically larger than the shark, ranging between 1,500 and 2,000 kg (3,300 and 4,400 lb), and are potentially dangerous adversaries.[121][122] Most commonly though, juvenile elephant seals are the most frequently eaten at elephant seal colonies.[123] Prey is normally attacked sub-surface. Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) are taken from the surface and dragged down until they stop struggling. They are then eaten near the bottom. California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) are ambushed from below and struck mid-body before being dragged and eaten.[124] Great white shark near Gansbaai, showing upper and lower teeth In the Northwest Atlantic mature great whites are known to feed on both harbor and grey seals.[52] Unlike adults, juvenile white sharks in the area feed on smaller fish species until they are large enough to prey on marine mammals such as seals.[125] White sharks also attack dolphins and porpoises from above, behind or below to avoid being detected by their echolocation. Targeted species include dusky dolphins (Sagmatias obscurus),[69] Risso's dolphins (Grampus griseus),[69] bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops ssp.),[69][126] humpback dolphins (Sousa ssp.),[126] harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena),[69] and Dall's porpoises (Phocoenoides dalli).[69] Groups of dolphins have occasionally been observed defending themselves from sharks with mobbing behaviour.[126] White shark predation on other species of small cetacean has also been observed. In August 1989, a 1.8 m (5.9 ft) juvenile male pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps) was found stranded in central California with a bite mark on its caudal peduncle from a great white shark.[127] In addition, white sharks attack and prey upon beaked whales.[69][126] Cases where an adult Stejneger's beaked whale (Mesoplodon stejnegeri), with a mean mass of around 1,100 kg (2,400 lb),[128] and a juvenile Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), an individual estimated at 3 m (9.8 ft), were hunted and killed by great white sharks have also been observed.[129] When hunting sea turtles, they appear to simply bite through the carapace around a flipper, immobilizing the turtle. The heaviest species of bony fish, the oceanic sunfish (Mola mola), has been found in great white shark stomachs.[116] Whale carcasses comprise an important part of the diet of white sharks. However, this has rarely been observed due to whales dying in remote areas. It has been estimated that 30 kg (66 lb) of whale blubber could feed a 4.5 m (15 ft) white shark for 1.5 months. Detailed observations were made of four whale carcasses in False Bay between 2000 and 2010. Sharks were drawn to the carcass by chemical and odour detection, spread by strong winds. After initially feeding on the whale caudal peduncle and fluke, the sharks would investigate the carcass by slowly swimming around it and mouthing several parts before selecting a blubber-rich area. During feeding bouts of 15–20 seconds the sharks removed flesh with lateral headshakes, without the protective ocular rotation they employ when attacking live prey. The sharks were frequently observed regurgitating chunks of blubber and immediately returning to feed, possibly in order to replace low energy yield pieces with high energy yield pieces, using their teeth as mechanoreceptors to distinguish them. After feeding for several hours, the sharks appeared to become lethargic, no longer swimming to the surface; they were observed mouthing the carcass but apparently unable to bite hard enough to remove flesh, they would instead bounce off and slowly sink. Up to eight sharks were observed feeding simultaneously, bumping into each other without showing any signs of aggression; on one occasion a shark accidentally bit the head of a neighbouring shark, leaving two teeth embedded, but both continued to feed unperturbed. Smaller individuals hovered around the carcass eating chunks that drifted away. Unusually for the area, large numbers of sharks over five metres long were observed, suggesting that the largest sharks change their behaviour to search for whales as they lose the manoeuvrability required to hunt seals. The investigating team concluded that the importance of whale carcasses, particularly for the largest white sharks, has been underestimated.[130] A shark scavenging on a whale carcass in False Bay, South Africa In another documented incident, white sharks were observed scavenging on a whale carcass alongside tiger sharks.[131] In 2020, marine biologists Sasha Dines and Enrico Gennari published a documented incident in the journal Marine and Freshwater Research of a group of great white sharks exhibiting pack-like behaviour, successfully attacking and killing a live juvenile 7 m (23 ft) humpback whale. The sharks utilized the classic attack strategy used on pinnipeds when attacking the whale, even utilizing the bite-and-spit tactic they employ on smaller prey items. The whale was an entangled individual, heavily emaciated and thus more vulnerable to the sharks' attacks. The incident is the first known documentation of great whites actively killing a large baleen whale.[132][133] A second incident regarding great white sharks killing humpback whales involving a single large female great white nicknamed Helen was documented off the coast of South Africa. Working alone, the shark attacked a 33 ft (10 m) emaciated and entangled humpback whale by attacking the whale's tail to cripple it before she managed to drown the whale by biting onto its head and pulling it underwater. The attack was witnessed via aerial drone by marine biologist Ryan Johnson, who said the attack went on for roughly 50 minutes before the shark successfully killed the whale. Johnson suggested that the shark may have strategized its attack in order to kill such a large animal.[134][135] Stomach contents of great whites also indicates that whale sharks both juvenile and adult may also be included on the animal's menu, though whether this is active hunting or scavenging is not known at present.[136][137] ReproductionGreat white sharks were previously thought to reach sexual maturity at around 15 years of age, but are now believed to take far longer; male great white sharks reach sexual maturity at age 26, while females take 33 years to reach sexual maturity.[9][138][139] Maximum life span was originally believed to be more than 30 years, but a study by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution placed it at upwards of 70 years. Examinations of vertebral growth ring count gave a maximum male age of 73 years and a maximum female age of 40 years for the specimens studied. The shark's late sexual maturity, low reproductive rate, long gestation period of 11 months and slow growth make it vulnerable to pressures such as overfishing and environmental change.[8] Little is known about the great white shark's mating habits, and mating behaviour had not been observed in this species until 1997 and properly documented in 2020. It was assumed previously to be possible that whale carcasses are an important location for sexually mature sharks to meet for mating.[130] According to the testimony of fisherman Dick Ledgerwood, who observed two great white sharks mating in the area near Port Chalmers and Otago Harbor, in New Zealand, it is theorized that great white sharks mate in shallow water away from feeding areas and continually roll belly to belly during copulation.[140] Birth has never been observed, but pregnant females have been examined. Great white sharks are ovoviviparous, which means eggs develop and hatch in the uterus and continue to develop until birth.[141] The great white has an 11-month gestation period. The shark pup's powerful jaws begin to develop in the first month. The unborn sharks participate in oophagy, in which they feed on ova produced by the mother. Delivery is in spring and summer.[142] The largest number of pups recorded for this species is 14 pups from a single mother measuring 4.5 m (15 ft) that was killed incidentally off Taiwan in 2019.[143] Breaching behaviourGreat white shark breaching near Gansbaai in South Africa A breach is the result of a high-speed approach to the surface with the resulting momentum taking the shark partially or completely clear of the water. This is a hunting technique employed by great white sharks whilst hunting seals. This technique is often used on cape fur seals at Seal Island in False Bay, South Africa. Because the behaviour is unpredictable, it is very hard to document. It was first photographed by Chris Fallows and Rob Lawrence who developed the technique of towing a slow-moving seal decoy to trick the sharks to breach.[144] Between April and September, scientists may observe around 600 breaches. The seals swim on the surface and the great white sharks launch their predatory attack from the deeper water below. They can reach speeds of up to 40 km/h (25 mph) and can at times launch themselves more than 3 m (10 ft) into the air. Just under half of observed breach attacks are successful.[145] In 2011, a 3-m-long shark jumped onto a seven-person research vessel off Seal Island in Mossel Bay. The crew were undertaking a population study using sardines as bait, and the incident was judged not to be an attack on the boat but an accident.[146] Natural threatsComparison of the size of an average orca and an average great white shark Interspecific competition between the great white shark and the orca is probable in regions where dietary preferences of both species may overlap.[126] An incident was documented on 4 October 1997, in the Farallon Islands off California in the United States. An estimated 4.7–5.3 m (15–17 ft) female orca immobilized an estimated 3–4 m (9.8–13.1 ft) great white shark.[147] The orca held the shark upside down to induce tonic immobility and kept the shark still for fifteen minutes, causing it to suffocate. The orca then proceeded to eat the dead shark's liver.[126][147][148] It is believed that the scent of the slain shark's carcass caused all the great whites in the region to flee, forfeiting an opportunity for a great seasonal feed.[149] Another similar attack apparently occurred there in 2000, but its outcome is not clear.[150] After both attacks, the local population of about 100 great whites vanished.[148][150] Following the 2000 incident, a great white with a satellite tag was found to have immediately submerged to a depth of 500 m (1,600 ft) and swum to Hawaii.[150] In 2015, a pod of orcas was recorded to have killed a great white shark off South Australia.[151] In 2017, three great whites were found washed ashore near Gansbaai, South Africa, with their body cavities torn open and the livers removed by what is likely to have been orcas.[152] Orcas also generally impact great white distribution. Studies published in 2019 of orca and great white shark distribution and interactions around the Farallon Islands indicate that the cetaceans impact the sharks negatively, with brief appearances by orcas causing the sharks to seek out new feeding areas until the next season.[153] It is unclear whether this is an example of competitive exclusion or ecology of fear. Occasionally, however, some great whites have been seen to swim near orcas without fear.[154] Of all shark species, the great white shark is responsible for by far the largest number of recorded shark bite incidents on humans, with 272 documented unprovoked bite incidents on humans as of 2012.[19] More than any documented bite incident, Peter Benchley's best-selling novel Jaws and the subsequent 1975 film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg provided the great white shark with the image of being a "man-eater" in the public mind.[155] While great white sharks have killed humans in at least 74 documented unprovoked bite incidents, they typically do not target them: for example, in the Mediterranean Sea there have been 31 confirmed bite incidents against humans in the last two centuries, most of which were non-fatal. Many of the incidents seemed to be "test-bites". Great white sharks also test-bite buoys, flotsam, and other unfamiliar objects, and they might grab a human or a surfboard to identify what it is. The great white shark is one of only four kinds of shark that have been involved in a significant number of fatal unprovoked attacks on humans. Contrary to popular belief, great white sharks do not mistake humans for seals.[156] Many bite incidents occur in waters with low visibility or other situations which impair the shark's senses. The species appears to not like the taste of humans, or at least finds the taste unfamiliar. Further research shows that they can tell in one bite whether or not the object is worth predating upon. Humans, for the most part, are too bony for their liking. They much prefer seals, which are fat and rich in protein.[157] Studies published in 2021 by Ryan et al. in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface suggest that mistaken identity is in fact a case for many shark bite incidents perpetrated by great white sharks. Using cameras and footage of seals in aquariums as models and mounted cameras moving at the same speed and angle as a cruising great white shark looking up at the surface from below, the experiment suggests that the sharks are likely colorblind and cannot see in fine enough detail to determine whether the silhouette above them is a pinniped or a swimming human, potentially vindicating the hypothesis.[158] Humans are not appropriate prey because the shark's digestion is too slow to cope with a human's high ratio of bone to muscle and fat. Accordingly, in most recorded shark bite incidents, great whites broke off contact after the first bite. Fatalities are usually caused by blood loss from the initial bite rather than from critical organ loss or from whole consumption. From 1990 to 2011 there have been a total of 139 unprovoked great white shark bite incidents, 29 of which were fatal.[159] However, some researchers have hypothesized that the reason the proportion of fatalities is low is not that sharks do not like human flesh, but because humans are often able to escape after the first bite. In the 1980s, John McCosker, chair of aquatic biology at the California Academy of Sciences, noted that divers who dived solo and were bitten by great whites were generally at least partially consumed, while divers who followed the buddy system were generally rescued by their companion. McCosker and Timothy C. Tricas, an author and professor at the University of Hawaii, suggest that a standard pattern for great whites is to make an initial devastating attack and then wait for the prey to weaken before consuming the wounded animal. Humans' ability to move out of reach with the help of others, thus foiling the attack, is unusual for a great white's prey.[160] Shark cullingA beached baby white shark Shark culling is the deliberate killing of sharks by a government in an attempt to reduce shark attacks; shark culling is often called "shark control".[161] These programs have been criticized by environmentalists and scientists—they say these programs harm the marine ecosystem; they also say such programs are "outdated, cruel, and ineffective".[162] Many different species (dolphins, turtles, etc.) are also killed in these programs (because of their use of shark nets and drum lines)—15,135 marine animals were killed in New South Wales' nets between 1950 and 2008,[161] and 84,000 marine animals were killed by Queensland authorities from 1962 to 2015.[163] Great white sharks are currently killed in both Queensland and New South Wales in "shark control" (shark culling) programs.[161] Queensland uses shark nets and drum lines with baited hooks, while New South Wales only uses nets. From 1962 to 2018, Queensland authorities killed about 50,000 sharks, many of which were great whites.[164] From 2013 to 2014 alone, 667 sharks were killed by Queensland authorities, including great white sharks.[161] In Queensland, great white sharks found alive on the drum lines are shot.[165] In New South Wales, between 1950 and 2008, a total of 577 great white sharks were killed in nets.[161] Between September 2017 and April 2018, fourteen great white sharks were killed in New South Wales.[166] KwaZulu-Natal (an area of South Africa) also has a "shark control" program that kills great white sharks and other marine life. In a 30-year period, more than 33,000 sharks were killed in KwaZulu-Natal's shark-killing program, including great whites.[167] In 2014 the state government of Western Australia led by Premier Colin Barnett implemented a policy of killing large sharks. The policy, colloquially referred to as the Western Australian shark cull, was intended to protect users of the marine environment from shark bite incidents, following the deaths of seven people on the Western Australian coastline in the years 2010–2013.[168] Baited drum lines were deployed near popular beaches using hooks designed to catch great white sharks, as well as bull and tiger sharks. Large sharks found hooked but still alive were shot and their bodies discarded at sea.[169] The government claimed they were not culling the sharks, but were using a "targeted, localised, hazard mitigation strategy".[170] Barnett described opposition as "ludicrous" and "extreme", and said that nothing could change his mind.[171] This policy was met with widespread condemnation from the scientific community, which showed that species responsible for bite incidents were notoriously hard to identify, that the drum lines failed to capture white sharks, as intended, and that the government also failed to show any correlation between their drum line policy and a decrease in shark bite incidents in the region.[172] Attacks on boatsGreat white sharks infrequently bite and sometimes even sink boats. Only five of the 108 authenticated unprovoked shark bite incidents reported from the Pacific Coast during the 20th century involved kayakers.[173] In a few cases they have bitten boats up to 10 m (33 ft) in length. They have bumped or knocked people overboard, usually biting the boat from the stern. In one case in 1936, a large shark leapt completely into the South African fishing boat Lucky Jim, knocking a crewman into the sea. Tricas and McCosker's underwater observations suggest that sharks are attracted to boats by the electrical fields they generate, which are picked up by the ampullae of Lorenzini and confuse the shark about whether or not wounded prey might be nearby.[174] In captivityGreat white shark in the Monterey Bay Aquarium in September 2006 Prior to August 1981, no great white shark in captivity lived longer than 11 days. In August 1981, a great white survived for 16 days at SeaWorld San Diego before being released.[175] The idea of containing a live great white at SeaWorld Orlando was used in the 1983 film Jaws 3-D. Monterey Bay Aquarium first attempted to display a great white in 1984, but the shark died after 11 days because it did not eat.[176] In July 2003, Monterey researchers captured a small female and kept it in a large netted pen near Malibu for five days. They had the rare success of getting the shark to feed in captivity before its release.[177] Not until September 2004 was the aquarium able to place a great white on long-term exhibit. A young female, which was caught off the coast of Ventura, was kept in the aquarium's 3.8 million l (1 million US gal) Outer Bay exhibit for 198 days before she was released in March 2005. She was tracked for 30 days after release.[178] On the evening of 31 August 2006, the aquarium introduced a juvenile male caught outside Santa Monica Bay.[179] His first meal as a captive was a large salmon steak on 8 September 2006, and as of that date, he was estimated to be 1.72 m (68 in) in length and to weigh approximately 47 kg (104 lb). He was released on 16 January 2007, after 137 days in captivity. Monterey Bay Aquarium housed a third great white, a juvenile male, for 162 days between 27 August 2007, and 5 February 2008. On arrival, he was 1.4 m (4.6 ft) long and weighed 30.6 kg (67 lb). He grew to 1.8 m (5.9 ft) and 64 kg (141 lb) before release. A juvenile female came to the Outer Bay Exhibit on 27 August 2008. While she did swim well, the shark fed only once during her stay and was tagged and released on 7 September 2008. Another juvenile female was captured near Malibu on 12 August 2009, introduced to the Outer Bay exhibit on 26 August 2009, and was successfully released into the wild on 4 November 2009.[180] The Monterey Bay Aquarium introduced a 1.4-m-long male into their redesigned "Open Sea" exhibit on 31 August 2011. He was exhibited for 55 days, and was released into the wild on the 25th of October the same year. However, the shark was determined to have died shortly after release via an attached electronic tag. The cause of death is not known.[181][182][183] The Monterey Bay Aquarium does not plan to exhibit any more great whites, as the main purpose of containing them was scientific. As data from captive great whites were no longer needed, the institute has instead shifted its focus to study wild sharks.[184] One of the largest adult great whites ever exhibited was at Japan's Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in 2016, where a 3.5 m (11 ft) male was exhibited for three days before dying.[185][186] Perhaps the most famous captive was a 2.4 m (7.9 ft) female named Sandy, which in August 1980 became the only great white to be housed at the California Academy of Sciences' Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco, California. She was released because she would not eat and constantly bumped against the walls.[187] Due to the vast amounts of resources required and the subsequent cost to keep a great white shark alive in captivity, their dietary preferences, size, migratory nature, and the stress of capture and containment, permanent exhibition of a great white shark is likely to be unfeasible.[188] Shark tourismCage diving is most common at sites where great whites are frequent including the coast of South Africa, the Neptune Islands in South Australia,[189] and Guadalupe Island in Baja California. The popularity of cage diving and swimming with sharks is at the focus of a booming tourist industry.[190][191] A common practice is to chum the water with pieces of fish to attract the sharks. These practices may make sharks more accustomed to people in their environment and to associate human activity with food; a potentially dangerous situation. By drawing bait on a wire towards the cage, tour operators lure the shark to the cage, possibly striking it, exacerbating this problem. Other operators draw the bait away from the cage, causing the shark to swim past the divers. At present, hang baits are illegal off Isla Guadalupe and reputable dive operators do not use them. Operators in South Africa and Australia continue to use hang baits and pinniped decoys.[192] In South Australia, playing rock music recordings underwater, including the AC/DC album Back in Black has also been used experimentally to attract sharks.[193] Companies object to being blamed for shark bite incidents, pointing out that lightning tends to strike humans more often than sharks bite humans.[194] Their position is that further research needs to be done before banning practices such as chumming, which may alter natural behaviour.[195] One compromise is to only use chum in areas where whites actively patrol anyway, well away from human leisure areas. Also, responsible dive operators do not feed sharks. Only sharks that are willing to scavenge follow the chum trail and if they find no food at the end then the shark soon swims off and does not associate chum with a meal. It has been suggested that government licensing strategies may help enforce these responsible tourism.[192]
It is unclear how much of a concurrent increase in fishing for great white sharks has caused the decline of great white shark populations from the 1970s to the present. No accurate global population numbers are available, but the great white shark is now considered vulnerable.[1] Sharks taken during the long interval between birth and sexual maturity never reproduce, making population recovery and growth difficult.[9] The International Union for Conservation of Nature notes that very little is known about the actual status of the great white shark, but as it appears uncommon compared to other widely distributed species, it is considered vulnerable.[1] It is included in Appendix II of CITES,[15] meaning that international trade in the species (including parts and derivatives) requires a permit.[196] As of March 2010, it has also been included in Annex I of the CMS Migratory Sharks MoU, which strives for increased international understanding and coordination for the protection of certain migratory sharks.[197] A February 2010 study by Barbara Block of Stanford University estimated the world population of great white sharks to be lower than 3,500 individuals, making the species more vulnerable to extinction than the tiger, whose population is in the same range.[198] According to another study from 2014 by George H. Burgess, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, there are about 2,000 great white sharks near the California coast, which is 10 times higher than the previous estimate of 219 by Barbara Block.[199][200] Fishermen target many sharks for their jaws, teeth, and fins, and as game fish in general. The great white shark, however, is rarely an object of commercial fishing, although its flesh is considered valuable. If casually captured (it happens for example in some tonnare in the Mediterranean), it is misleadingly sold as smooth-hound shark.[201] In AustraliaThe great white shark was declared vulnerable by the Australian Government in 1999 because of significant population decline and is currently protected under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.[202] The causes of decline prior to protection included mortality from sport fishing harvests as well as being caught in beach protection netting.[203] The national conservation status of the great white shark is reflected by all Australian states under their respective laws, granting the species full protection throughout Australia regardless of jurisdiction.[202] Many states had prohibited the killing or possession of great white sharks prior to national legislation coming into effect. The great white shark is further listed as threatened in Victoria under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, and as rare or likely to become extinct under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife Conservation Act in Western Australia.[202] In 2002, the Australian government created the White Shark Recovery Plan, implementing government-mandated conservation research and monitoring for conservation in addition to federal protection and stronger regulation of shark-related trade and tourism activities.[203] An updated recovery plan was published in 2013 to review progress, research findings, and to implement further conservation actions.[16] A study in 2012 revealed that Australia's white shark population was separated by Bass Strait into genetically distinct eastern and western populations, indicating a need for the development of regional conservation strategies.[204] Presently, human-caused shark mortality is continuing, primarily from accidental and illegal catching in commercial and recreational fishing as well as from being caught in beach protection netting, and the populations of great white shark in Australia are yet to recover.[16] In spite of official protections in Australia, great white sharks continue to be killed in state "shark control" programs within Australia. For example, the government of Queensland has a "shark control" program (shark culling) which kills great white sharks (as well as other marine life) using shark nets and drum lines with baited hooks.[205][161] In Queensland, great white sharks that are found alive on the baited hooks are shot.[165] The government of New South Wales also kills great white sharks in its "shark control" program.[161] Partly because of these programs, shark numbers in eastern Australia have decreased.[164] The Australasian population of great white sharks is believed to be in excess of 8,000–10,000 individuals according to genetic research studies done by CSIRO, with an adult population estimated to be around 2,210 individuals in both Eastern and Western Australia. The annual survival rate for juveniles in these two separate populations was estimated in the same study to be close to 73 percent, while adult sharks had a 93 percent annual survival rate. Whether or not mortality rates in great white sharks have declined, or the population has increased as a result of the protection of this species in Australian waters is as yet unknown due to the slow growth rates of this species.[206] In New ZealandAs of April 2007, great white sharks were fully protected within 370 km (230 mi) of New Zealand and additionally from fishing by New Zealand-flagged boats outside this range. The maximum penalty is a $250,000 fine and up to six months in prison.[207] In June 2018 the New Zealand Department of Conservation classified the great white shark under the New Zealand Threat Classification System as "Nationally Endangered". The species meets the criteria for this classification as there exists a moderate, stable population of between 1000 and 5000 mature individuals. This classification has the qualifiers "Data Poor" and "Threatened Overseas".[208] In North AmericaIn 2013, great white sharks were added to California's Endangered Species Act. From data collected, the population of great whites in the North Pacific was estimated to be fewer than 340 individuals. Research also reveals these sharks are genetically distinct from other members of their species elsewhere in Africa, Australia, and the east coast of North America, having been isolated from other populations.[209] A 2014 study estimated the population of great white sharks along the California coastline to be approximately 2,400.[210][211] In 2015 Massachusetts banned catching, cage diving, feeding, towing decoys, or baiting and chumming for its significant and highly predictable migratory great white population without an appropriate research permit. The goal of these restrictions is to both protect the sharks and public health.[212]
Page 260 Minutes is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation. In 2002, 60 Minutes was ranked number six on TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time",[2] and in 2013, it was ranked number 24 on the magazine's list of the "60 Best Series of All Time".[3] The New York Times has called it "one of the most esteemed news magazines on American television".[4] Title card used since October 2006 See Correspondents sectionCountry of originUnited StatesOriginal languageEnglishNo. of seasons54No. of episodes2500+ProductionExecutive producers
HDTV 1080i (starting 2008)[1]Original releaseSeptember 24, 1968 (1968-09-24) – presentChronologyRelated shows60 Minutes (Australia) 48 Hours Face the Nation CBS Overnight News Originally airing in 1968, the program began as a bi-weekly television show hosted on CBS hosted by Mike Wallace and Harry Reasoner. The two sat on opposite sides of the cream-colored set, though the set's color was later changed to black, the color still used today. The show used a large stopwatch during transition periods and highlighted its topics through chroma key⸺both techniques are still used today. In 1972, the program began airing from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm Eastern time, although this time was sometimes disrupted by broadcasting of NFL games on Sundays. Since then, the show has generally kept the Sunday evening format, although the start time has occasionally been shifted. The program now generally starts at 7:00 pm Eastern. If sports programming is airing that afternoon, 60 Minutes starts at 7:30 pm Eastern or at the game's conclusion. The show is hosted by several correspondents; none share screen time with each other. Full-time hosts include Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, Bill Whitaker, and John Dickerson. Several spinoffs of the show have been made, including international formats of the show. Since the show's inception in 1968, the opening of 60 Minutes features a stopwatch.[5] The Aristo (Heuer) design first appeared in 1978. On October 29, 2006, the background changed to red, the title text color changed to white, and the stopwatch was shifted to the upright position. This version was used from 1992 to 2006 (the Square 721 type was changed in 1998). The program employed a magazine format similar to that of the Canadian program W5, which had premiered two years earlier. It pioneered many of the most important investigative journalism procedures and techniques, including re-editing interviews, hidden cameras, and "gotcha journalism" visits to the home or office of an investigative subject.[6] Similar programs sprang up in Australia and Canada during the 1970s, as well as on local television news.[6] Initially, 60 Minutes aired as a bi-weekly show hosted by Mike Wallace and Harry Reasoner debuting on September 24, 1968, and alternating weeks with other CBS News productions on Tuesday evenings at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The first edition, described by Reasoner in the opening as a "kind of a magazine for television," featured the following segments:
The first "magazine-cover" chroma key was a photo of two helmeted policemen (for the Clark interview segment). Wallace and Reasoner sat in chairs on opposite sides of the set, which had a cream-colored backdrop; the more famous black backdrop (which is still used as of 2020[update]) did not appear until the following year. The logo was in Helvetica type with the word "Minutes" spelled in all lower-case letters; the logo most associated with the show (rendered in Square 721 type with "Minutes" spelled in uppercase) did not appear until about 1974. Further, to extend the magazine motif, the producers added a "Vol. xx, No. xx" to the title display on the chroma key; modeled after the volume and issue number identifications featured in print magazines, this was used until about 1971. The trademark stopwatch, however, did not appear on the inaugural broadcast; it would not debut until several episodes later. Alpo dog food was the sole sponsor of the first program.[1] Don Hewitt, who had been a producer of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, sought out Wallace as a stylistic contrast to Reasoner.[7] According to one historian of the show, the idea of the format was to make the hosts the reporters, to always feature stories that were of national importance but focused upon individuals involved with, or in conflict with, those issues, and to limit the reports' airtime to around 13 minutes.[7] However, the initial season was troubled by lack of network confidence, as the program did not garner ratings much higher than that of other CBS News documentaries. As a rule, during that era, news programming during prime time lost money; networks mainly scheduled public affairs programs in prime time in order to bolster the prestige of their news departments, and thus boost ratings for the regular evening newscasts, which were seen by far more people than documentaries and the like. 60 Minutes struggled under that stigma during its first three years. Changes to 60 Minutes came fairly early in the program's history. When Reasoner left CBS to co-anchor ABC's evening newscast (he would return to CBS and 60 Minutes in 1978), Morley Safer joined the team in 1970, and he took over Reasoner's duties of reporting less aggressive stories. However, when Richard Nixon began targeting press access and reporting, even Safer, formerly the CBS News bureau chief in Saigon and London, began to do "hard" investigative reports, and during the 1970–71 season alone, 60 Minutes reported on cluster bombs, the South Vietnamese Army, draft dodgers, Nigeria, the Middle East, and Northern Ireland.[8] Effects from the Prime Time Access RuleAir Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz in an interview with Lara Logan, April 15, 2009. By 1971, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) introduced the Prime Time Access Rule, which freed local network affiliates in the top 50 markets (in practice, the entire network) to take a half-hour of prime time from the networks on Mondays through Saturdays and one full hour on Sundays. Because nearly all affiliates found production costs for the FCC's intended goal of increased public affairs programming very high and the ratings (and by association, advertising revenues) low, making it mostly unprofitable, the FCC created an exception for network-authored news and public affairs shows. After a six-month hiatus in late 1971, CBS found a prime place for 60 Minutes in a portion of that displaced time, 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Eastern (5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Central Time) on Sundays in January 1972.[8] This proved somewhat less than satisfactory, however, because in order to accommodate CBS' telecasts of late afternoon National Football League (NFL) football games, 60 Minutes went on hiatus during the fall from 1972 to 1975 (and the summer of 1972). This took place because football telecasts were protected contractually from interruptions in the wake of the infamous "Heidi Bowl" incident on NBC in November 1968. Despite the irregular scheduling, the program's hard-hitting reports attracted a steadily growing audience, particularly during the waning days of the Vietnam War and the gripping events of the Watergate scandal; at that time, few if any other major network news shows did in-depth investigative reporting to the degree carried out by 60 Minutes. Eventually, during the summers of 1973 through 1975, CBS did allow the program back onto the prime time schedule proper, on Fridays in 1973 and Sundays the two years thereafter, as a replacement for programs aired during the regular television season. It was only when the FCC returned an hour to the networks on Sundays (for news or family programming), which had been taken away from them four years earlier, in a 1975 amendment to the Access Rule, that CBS finally found a viable permanent timeslot for 60 Minutes. When the family-oriented drama Three for the Road ended after a 12-week run in the fall, the news magazine took its place at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time (6:00 p.m. Central) on December 7, 1975. It has aired at that time since for 47 years as of 2022[update], making it not only the longest-running prime time program currently in production, but also the television program (excluding daily programs such as evening newscasts or morning news-talk shows) broadcasting for the longest length of time at a single time period each week in U.S. television history.[citation needed] This move, and the addition of then-White House correspondent Dan Rather to the reporting team, made the program into a strong ratings hit and, eventually, a general cultural phenomenon. This was no less than a stunning reversal of the historically poor ratings performances of documentary programs on network television. By 1976, 60 Minutes became the top-rated program on Sunday nights in the U.S. By 1979, it had achieved the #1 spot among all television programs in the Nielsen ratings, unheard of before for a news broadcast in prime time. This success translated into great profits for CBS; advertising rates increased from $17,000 per 30-second spot in 1975 to $175,000 in 1982.[9] The program sometimes does not start until after 7:00 p.m. Eastern, due largely to CBS Sports live sporting events. At the conclusion of an NFL game, 60 Minutes will air in its entirety and delay all subsequent programs. However, in the Pacific time zone, 60 Minutes is always able to start at its scheduled time as live sports coverage ends earlier in the afternoon. The program's success has also led CBS Sports to schedule events (such as the final round of the Masters Tournament and the second round and regional final games of the NCAA men's basketball tournament) leading into 60 Minutes and the rest of the network's primetime lineup. Starting in the 2012–2013 season, in order to accommodate a new NFL scheduling policy that the second game of a doubleheader start at 4:25 p.m., CBS changed the scheduled start time of 60 Minutes to 7:30 p.m. Eastern time (or game conclusion) for Eastern and Central Time Zone stations which are receiving a game in that window. The start time remains at 7:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific (or game conclusion if a late single game is airing in the eastern markets) on stations which are not broadcasting a late game in a given week (or for Western time zones even if a Doubleheader airs) .[10] Radio broadcast and Internet distribution60 Minutes is also simulcast on several former CBS Radio flagship stations such as KYW in Philadelphia, WBBM in Chicago, WWJ in Detroit and KCBS in San Francisco all are owned by Audacy except for IHeartRadio's WBZ. When it airs locally on their sister CBS Television Network affiliate, even in the Central and Eastern time zones, the show is aired at the top of the hour at 7:00 p.m./6:00 p.m. Central (barring local sports play-by-play pre-emptions and breaking news coverage) no matter how long the show is delayed on CBS Television, resulting in radio listeners often hearing the show on those stations ahead of the television broadcast. An audio version of each broadcast without advertising began to be distributed via podcast and the iTunes Store, starting with the broadcast on September 23, 2007.[11] Video from 60 Minutes (including full episodes) is also made available for streaming several hours after the program's initial broadcast on CBSNews.com and Paramount+. 60 Minutes consists of three long-form news stories without superimposed graphics. There is a commercial break between two stories. Each story is introduced from a set with a backdrop resembling pages from a magazine story on the same topic. The program undertakes its own investigations and follows up on investigations instigated by national newspapers and other sources. Unlike its most famous competitor 20/20, as well as traditional local and national news programs, the 60 Minutes journalists never share the screen with (or speak to) other 60 Minutes journalists on camera at any time. This creates a strong psychological sense of intimacy between the journalist and the television viewer. Reporting tone60 Minutes blends the probing journalism of the seminal 1950s CBS series See It Now with Edward R. Murrow (a show for which Hewitt served as the director for its first few years) and the personality profiles of another Murrow program, Person to Person. In Hewitt's own words, 60 Minutes blends "higher Murrow" and "lower Murrow".[12] "Point/Counterpoint" segmentFor most of the 1970s, the program included Point/Counterpoint, in which a liberal and a conservative commentator debated a particular issue. This segment originally featured James J. Kilpatrick representing the conservative side and Nicholas von Hoffman[13] for the liberal, with Shana Alexander[14] taking over for von Hoffman after he departed in 1974.[13] The segment was an innovation that caught the public imagination as a live version of competing editorials. In 1979, Alexander asked Hewitt to raise the pay of $350 a week; Hewitt declined, and the segment ended.[13] Point/Counterpoint was lampooned by the NBC comedy series Saturday Night Live, which featured Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd as debaters, with Aykroyd announcing the topic, Curtin making an opening statement, then Aykroyd typically retorting with, "Jane, you ignorant slut" and Curtin with "Dan, you pompous ass";[15][16] in the film Airplane! (1980), in which the faux Kilpatrick argues in favor of the plane crashing stating "they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into"; and in an earlier sketch comedy film, The Kentucky Fried Movie, where the segment was called "Count/Pointercount". A similar concept was revived briefly in March 2003, this time featuring Bob Dole and Bill Clinton, former opponents in the 1996 presidential election. The pair agreed to do ten segments, called "Clinton/Dole" and "Dole/Clinton" in alternating weeks, but did not continue into the 2003–2004 fall television season. Reports indicated that the segments were considered too gentlemanly, in the style of the earlier "Point/Counterpoint", and lacked the feistiness of Crossfire.[17] Andy Rooney segmentFrom 1978 to 2011, the program usually ended with a (usually light-hearted and humorous) commentary by Andy Rooney expounding on topics of wildly varying import, ranging from international politics, to economics, and to personal philosophy on everyday life. One recurring topic was measuring the amount of coffee in coffee cans.[18] Rooney's pieces, particularly one in which he referred to actor Mel Gibson as a "wacko", on occasion led to complaints from viewers. In 1990, Rooney was suspended without pay for three months by then-CBS News President David Burke, because of the negative publicity around his saying that "too much alcohol, too much food, drugs, homosexual unions, cigarettes [are] all known to lead to premature death."[19] He wrote an explanatory letter to a gay organization after being ordered not to do so. After only four weeks without Rooney, 60 Minutes lost 20% of its audience. CBS management then decided that it was in the best interest of the network to have Rooney return immediately.[20] Rooney published several books documenting his contributions to the program, including Years Of Minutes and A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney. Rooney retired from 60 Minutes, delivering his final commentary on October 2, 2011; it was his 1,097th commentary over his 34-year career on the program. He died one month later on November 4, 2011. On November 13, 2011, 60 Minutes featured an hour-long tribute to Rooney and his career, and included a rebroadcast of his final commentary segment. Opening sequenceThe opening sequence features a 60 Minutes "magazine cover" with the show's trademark, an Aristo stopwatch, intercut with preview clips of the episode's stories. The sequence ends with each of the current correspondents and hosts introducing themselves. The last host who appears (currently Scott Pelley) then says, "Those stories tonight on 60 Minutes". When Rooney was a prominent fixture, the final line was "Those stories and Andy Rooney, tonight on 60 Minutes". Before that, and whenever Rooney did not appear, the final line was "Those stories and more, tonight on 60 Minutes". The stopwatch counts off each of the broadcast's 60 minutes, starting from zero at the beginning of each show. It is seen during the opening title sequence, before each commercial break, and at the tail-end of the closing credits, and each time it appears it displays (within reasonable accuracy) the elapsed time of the episode to that point. On October 29, 2006, the opening sequence changed from a black background, which had been used for over a decade, to white. Also, the gray background for the Aristo stopwatch in the "cover" changed to red, the color for the title text changed to white, and the stopwatch itself changed from the diagonal position it had been oriented in for 31 years to an upright position.[citation needed] Web contentVideos and transcripts of 60 Minutes editions, as well as clips that were not included in the broadcast are available on the program's website. In September 2010, the program launched a website called "60 Minutes Overtime", in which stories broadcast on-air are discussed in further detail.[21] Previously the show had a partnership with Yahoo! for distribution of extra content.[22]
Commentators for 60 Minutes have included:
† = Deceased
Based on viewership ratings, 60 Minutes is the most successful program in U.S. television history since it was moved into its present timeslot in 1975. For five seasons it was the year's top program, a feat matched by the sitcoms All in the Family and The Cosby Show, and surpassed only by the reality competition series American Idol, which had been the #1 show for eight consecutive seasons from the 2003–2004 television season up to the 2010–2011 season. 60 Minutes was a top ten show for 23 seasons in a row (1977–2000), an unsurpassed record, and has made the Top 20 for every season since the 1976–1977 season, except from 2005 to 2008.[30] 60 Minutes first broke into the Nielsen Top 20 during the 1976–77 season. The following season, it was the fourth-most-watched program, and by the 1979–80 season, it was the number one show.[30] During the 21st century, it remained among the top 20 programs in the Nielsen ratings, and the highest-rated news magazine.[31] On November 16, 2008, the edition featuring an interview with President-elect Barack Obama, earned a total viewership of 25.1 million viewers.[32] On October 6, 2013, the broadcast (which was delayed by 44 minutes that evening due to a Denver Broncos-Dallas Cowboys NFL game) drew 17.94 million viewers; retaining 63% of the 28.32 million viewers of its lead-in, and making it the most watched 60 Minutes broadcast since December 16, 2012.[33][34] On December 1, 2013, the broadcast (delayed 50 minutes due to a Broncos-Kansas City Chiefs game) was watched by 18.09 million viewers, retaining 66% of its NFL lead-in (which earned 28.11 million viewers during the 7:00 p.m. hour).[35] On March 25, 2018, the edition featuring Stormy Daniels giving details on her alleged affair with President Donald Trump drew 22.1 million viewers, the most since the 2008 Obama interview. The broadcast was delayed due to the NCAA men's basketball regional final on CBS between Kansas and Duke going to overtime.[36][37] RecognitionEmmy AwardsAs of June 26, 2017[update], 60 Minutes had won a total of 138 Emmy Awards, a record unsurpassed by any other primetime program on U.S. television.[30][38] Peabody AwardsHenry Schuster at the 68th Annual Peabody Awards for 60 Minutes-Lifeline The program has won 20 Peabody Awards for segments including "All in the Family", an investigation into abuses by government and military contractors; "The CIA's Cocaine", which uncovered CIA involvement in drug smuggling, "Friendly Fire", a report on incidents of friendly fire in the Gulf War; "The Duke Rape Case", an investigation into accusations of rape at an off campus lacrosse team party in 2006, and "The Killings in Haditha", an investigation into the killing of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines.[39] Other awardsThe show received an Investigative Reporter and Editor medal for their segment "The Osprey", documenting a Marine cover-up of deadly flaws in the V-22 Osprey aircraft.[40] Impact on innocent victimsIn 1983, a report by Morley Safer, "Lenell Geter's in Jail", helped exonerate a Texas man who was wrongly convicted and imprisoned for armed robbery.[41] Longest-running primetime showAs of 2021[update], 60 Minutes holds the record for the longest continuously running program of any genre scheduled during American network prime time. It has aired at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sundays since December 7, 1975 (although since 2012, it moves to 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Sundays if a CBS affiliate has a late NFL game). Debuting in 1947, Meet the Press also aired in prime time, but it has been a daytime program since 1965. The Walt Disney anthology television series, which premiered in 1954, and the Hallmark Hall of Fame, which has aired since 1951, have aired longer than 60 Minutes, but none of them has aired in prime time continually, as has 60 Minutes.[citation needed] The show has been praised for landmark journalism and received many awards. However, it has also become embroiled in some controversy, including (in order of appearance): Unintended accelerationOn November 23, 1986, 60 Minutes aired a segment greenlit by Hewitt, concerning the Audi 5000 automobile, a popular German luxury car. The story covered a supposed problem of "unintended acceleration" when the brake pedal was pushed, with emotional interviews with six people who sued Audi (unsuccessfully) after they crashed their cars, including one woman whose six-year-old son had been killed. In the 60 Minutes segment footage was shown of an Audi 5000 with the accelerator "moving down on its own", accelerating the car. It later emerged that an expert witness employed by one of the plaintiffs modified the accelerator with a concealed device, causing the "unintended acceleration".[42] Independent investigators concluded that this "unintended acceleration" was most likely due to driver error, where the driver let their foot slip off the brake and onto the accelerator. Tests by Audi and independent journalists showed that even with the throttle wide open, the car would simply stall if the brakes were actually being used.[43] The incident devastated Audi sales in the United States, which did not rebound for 15 years. The initial incidents which prompted the report were found by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Transport Canada to have been attributable to operator error, where car owners had depressed the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal. CBS issued a partial retraction, without acknowledging the test results of involved government agencies.[44] Years later, Dateline NBC, a rival to 60 Minutes, was found guilty of similar tactics regarding the fuel tank integrity of General Motors pickup trucks.[45] Jeep rolloversA segment aired in December, 1980, concerning the alleged Jeep CJ-5 high rollover risk as demonstrated in Insurance Institute for Highway Safety testing. The demonstration was a Jeep rolling over during an extreme turn at 20 mph, something that would not cause other cars to roll over. It was deemed by 60 Minutes reporters as the "most dangerous thing on four wheels". After the show aired, many people were concerned about the safety of the vehicle, and following sales plummeted. This tarnished the reputation of the Jeep CJ; the model was discontinued in 1986. Years after the incident occurred, it was found that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety had attempted to roll the car 435 times, only having 8 rollovers. The show had also failed to mention/show that there were weights hanging on spots of the vehicle that had caused the vehicle to have a higher rollover risk.[46] AlarIn February 1989, 60 Minutes aired a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council claiming that the use of daminozide (Alar) on apples presented an unacceptably high health risk to consumers. Apple sales dropped and CBS was sued unsuccessfully by apple growers.[47] Alar was subsequently banned for use on food crops in the U.S. by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Werner ErhardOn March 3, 1991, 60 Minutes broadcast "Werner Erhard," which dealt with controversies involving Erhard's personal and business life. A year after the 60 Minutes piece aired, Erhard filed a lawsuit against CBS, claiming that the broadcast contained several "false, misleading and defamatory" statements about him. One month after filing the lawsuit, Erhard filed for dismissal.[48] Erhard later told Larry King in an interview that he dropped the suit after receiving legal advice telling him that in order to win it, he had to prove not only that CBS knew the allegations were false but also that CBS acted with malice.[49] After numerous independent journalists exposed untruths and factual inaccuracies in the story[50][51] the segment was removed by CBS from its archives, with a disclaimer: "This segment has been deleted at the request of CBS News for legal or copyright reasons."[52] Brown & WilliamsonIn 1995, former Brown & Williamson Vice President for Research and Development Jeffrey Wigand provided information to 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman that B&W had systematically hidden the health risks of their cigarettes (see transcription). Furthermore, it was alleged that B&W had introduced foreign agents (such as fiberglass and ammonia) with the intent of enhancing the effect of nicotine. Bergman began to produce a piece based upon the information, but ran into opposition from Don Hewitt who, along with CBS lawyers, feared a billion dollar lawsuit from Brown and Williamson for tortious interference for encouraging Wigand to violate his non-disclosure agreement. A number of people at CBS would benefit from a sale of CBS to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, including the head of CBS lawyers and CBS News. Also, because of the interview, the son of CBS President Laurence Tisch (who also controlled Lorillard Tobacco) was among the people from the big tobacco companies at risk of being caught having committed perjury. Due to Hewitt's hesitation, The Wall Street Journal instead broke Wigand's story. The 60 Minutes piece was eventually aired with substantially altered content and minus some of the most damning evidence against B&W. The exposé of the incident was published in an article in Vanity Fair by Marie Brenner, entitled "The Man Who Knew Too Much".[53] The New York Times wrote that "the traditions of Edward R. Murrow and "60 Minutes" itself were diluted in the process,"[54] though the newspaper revised the quote slightly, suggesting that 60 Minutes and CBS had "betrayed the legacy of Edward R. Murrow". The incident was turned into a seven-times Oscar-nominated feature film entitled The Insider, directed by Michael Mann and starring Russell Crowe as Wigand, Al Pacino as Bergman, and Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace. Wallace denounced the portrayal of him as inaccurate to his stance on the issue.[55] U.S. Customs ServiceIn 1997, 60 Minutes alleged that agents of the U.S. Customs Service ignored drug trafficking across the Mexico–United States border at San Diego.[56] The only evidence was a memorandum apparently written by Rudy Camacho, who was the head of the San Diego branch office. Based on this memo, CBS alleged that Camacho had allowed trucks belonging to a particular firm to cross the border unimpeded. Mike Horner, a former Customs Service employee, had passed the memos on to 60 Minutes, and even provided a copy with an official stamp. Camacho was not consulted about the piece, and his career was devastated in the immediate term as his own department placed suspicion on him. In the end, it turned out that Horner had forged the documents as an act of revenge for his treatment within the Customs Service. Camacho sued CBS and settled for an undisclosed amount of money in damages. Hewitt was forced to issue an on-air retraction.[57] Kennewick ManA legal battle between archaeologists and the Umatilla tribe over the remains of a skeleton, nicknamed Kennewick Man, was reported by 60 Minutes on October 25, 1998, to which the Umatilla tribe reacted negatively. The tribe considered the segment heavily biased in favor of the scientists, cutting out important arguments, such as explanations of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.[58] The report focused heavily on the racial politics of the controversy and also added inflammatory arguments, such as questioning the legitimacy of Native American sovereignty[59] – much of the racial focus of the segment was later reported to have been either unfounded and/or misinterpreted.[60] Timothy McVeighOn March 12, 2000, 60 Minutes aired an interview with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. At the time, McVeigh had already been convicted and sentenced to death for the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in April 1995, and the subsequent deaths of 168 people. On the program, McVeigh was given the opportunity to vent against the government.[61] Following the program, a federal policy called the Special Confinement Unit Media Policy was enacted prohibiting face-to-face interviews with death row inmates.[62] A federal inmate challenged the policy in Hammer v. Ashcroft, under which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the prison policy. In March 2010, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in the case, and the policy limiting media access to death row inmates remains in place. CBS refuses to show the entire interview, and has stated no reasons.[63] Viacom/CBS cross-promotionIn recent years, the program has been accused of promoting books, films, and interviews with celebrities who are published or promoted by sister businesses of media conglomerate Viacom (which owned CBS from 2000 to 2005 and since 2019; both companies' shares since 2000 were majority-owned by National Amusements even during their fourteen-year separation) and publisher Simon & Schuster (which remained a part of CBS Corporation after the 2005 CBS/Viacom split and continued on after its re-merger with Viacom), without disclosing the journalistic conflict-of-interest to viewers.[64] Killian documents controversyThe Killian documents controversy involved six documents critical of President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard from 1972 to 1973. Four of these documents were presented as authentic in a 60 Minutes Wednesday broadcast aired on September 8, 2004, less than two months before the 2004 presidential election, but it was later found that CBS had failed to authenticate the documents. Subsequently, several typewriter and typography experts concluded the documents are forgeries, as have some media sources. No forensic document examiners or typography experts authenticated the documents, which may not be possible without original documents. The provider of the documents, Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, claimed to have burned the originals after faxing copies to CBS.[citation needed] The whole incident was turned into a feature-length film entitled Truth. "The Internet Is Infected" episode and the false hacker photoOn March 29, 2009, a segment titled "The Internet Is Infected" aired on 60 Minutes, which featured an interview with Don Jackson, a data protection professional for SecureWorks. Jackson himself declared in the program that "a part of [his] job is to know the enemy". However, during the interview, Jackson showed a photo of Finnish upper-level comprehensive school pupils and misidentified them as Russian hackers.[65] In the photo, one of the children wears a jacket with the Coat of Arms of Finland on it. Another one wears a cap which clearly has the logo of Karjala, a Finnish brand of beer, on it. The principal of the school in Taivalkoski confirmed that the photo was taken at the school about five years before the program was broadcast.[66] The photo's exact origins are unknown, but it is widely known in Finland, having been originally posted to the Finnish social networking site IRC-Galleria in the early 2000s. It spread all over Finnish internet communities, and even originated a couple of patriotically titled (but intentionally misspelled) mock sites.[66][67] 60 Minutes later issued a correction and on-air apology.[when?] Benghazi reportSubsequent to the 2012 Benghazi attack, 60 Minutes aired a report by correspondent Lara Logan on October 27, 2013, in which British military contractor Dylan Davies, identified by CBS under the pseudonym "Morgan Jones", described racing to the Benghazi compound several hours after the main assault was over, scaling a 12-foot wall and knocking out a lone fighter with the butt of a rifle. He also claimed to have visited a Benghazi hospital earlier that night where he saw Ambassador Christopher Stevens' body. In the days following the report, Davies' personal actions were challenged.[68] The FBI, which had interviewed Davies several times and considered him a credible source,[69] said the account Davies had given them was different from what he told 60 Minutes. Davies stood by his story,[70] but the inconsistency ultimately prompted 60 Minutes to conclude it was a mistake to include Davies in their report and a correction was issued.[71] Following the correction, a journalistic review was conducted by Al Ortiz, CBS News' executive director of standards and practices. He determined that red flags about Davies' account were missed.[72] Davies had said to the program and written in his book that he told an alternative version of his actions to his employer, who he said had demanded that he stay inside his Benghazi villa as the attack unfolded. That alternative version was shared with US authorities and 60 Minutes was unable to prove the story Davies had told them was true.[73] Davies' book, The Embassy House, was published two days after the 60 Minutes report, by Threshold Editions, part of the Simon and Schuster unit of CBS. It was pulled from shelves once 60 Minutes issued its correction.[74] On November 26, 2013, Lara Logan was forced to take a leave of absence due to the errors in the Benghazi report.[73] Logan returned to work months later.[75] NSA reportOn December 15, 2013, 60 Minutes aired a report on the National Security Agency (NSA) that was widely criticized[76] as false[77] and a "puff piece".[78][79] The story was reported by John Miller, who once worked in the office of the Director of National Intelligence. Tesla automaker reportOn March 30, 2014, 60 Minutes presented a story on the Tesla Model S luxury electric automobile, with Scott Pelley conducting an interview with CEO Elon Musk concerning the car brand as well as his company SpaceX. Within a day, the automotive blog site Jalopnik reported that the sounds accompanying footage of the car shown during the story were actually sounds from a traditional gasoline engine dubbed over the footage, when in reality the electric car makes no such sounds.[80] CBS released a statement explaining that the sound was the result of an audio editing error, and subsequently removed the sound from the online version of the piece. However, several news outlets, as well as Jalopnik itself, expressed doubt over the authenticity of this explanation, noting the similar scandal involving Tesla Motors and the New York Times in 2013.[81][82] Sexual harassmentAfter the resignation of CBS news head Les Moonves, an investigation into sexual harassment at CBS, including 60 Minutes, uncovered evidence of long-running sexual harassment issues stemming from behavior of producers Jeff Fager and Don Hewitt.[83][84] Florida COVID-19 vaccine rolloutIn April 2021, Sharyn Alfonsi's story in 60 Minutes on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the state's COVID-19 vaccine rollout faced criticism for suggesting that a donation by the supermarket chain Publix to DeSantis' re-election campaign influenced Florida's partnership with Publix stores for vaccine distribution.[85][86][87] Subsequently, Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner accused 60 Minutes of reporting "intentionally false" information,[86] while Karol Markowicz of the New York Post characterized Alfonsi as coming off as a "political activist" in the segment.[88] A spokesperson for 60 Minutes defended the story for having included DeSantis' response to the accusation.[85] PolitiFact stated that by omitting DeSantis' remarks on why the state partnered with Publix to distribute vaccines, the clip could be considered to be "Deceptive editing".[89] Facial Recognition reportOn May 16, 2021, Anderson Cooper's story in 60 Minutes on the flaws in facial recognition technology used by the police resulting in incorrect identification of people of color received backlash for denying credit to the black female researchers who pioneered the field. The segment was criticized by the Algorithmic Justice League for "deliberately excluding the groundbreaking and award-winning work of prominent black women AI researchers Joy Buolamwini, Dr. Timnit Gebru, and Inioluwa Deborah Raji".[90] The segment was called out for its hypocrisy for failing to credit black women for their pioneering work in a segment highlighting how facial recognition software often leaves out black, Asian, and female faces. CBS later issued a statement explaining that these researchers were not included due to time restrictions of the segment.[91] The main 60 Minutes show has created a number of spin-offs over the years. 30 Minutes30 Minutes was a news magazine aimed at children that was patterned after 60 Minutes, airing as the final program in CBS's Saturday morning lineup from 1978 to 1982. It was hosted by Christopher Glenn (who also served as the voice-over for the interstitial program In the News and was an anchor on the CBS Radio Network), along with Betsy Aaron (1978–1980) and Betty Ann Bowser (1980–1982). 60 Minutes More60 Minutes More was a spin-off that ran for one season from 1996 to 1997 on the channel CBS Eye on People. The episodes featured popular stories from the past that were expanded with updates on the original story. Each episode featured three of these segments.[92] 60 Minutes IIIn 1999, a second edition of 60 Minutes was started in the United States, titled 60 Minutes II. This edition was later renamed 60 Minutes for the fall of 2004 in an effort to sell it as a high-quality program, since some had sarcastically referred to it as 60 Minutes, Jr. CBS News president Andrew Heyward said, "the Roman numeral II created some confusion on the part of the viewers and suggested a watered-down version".[93] However, a widely known controversy which came to be known as "Rathergate", regarding a report that aired on September 8, 2004, caused another name change. The program was retitled 60 Minutes Wednesday both to differentiate itself and to avoid tarnishing the Sunday edition, as the editions were editorially independent from one another. It reverted to its original Roman numeral title on July 8, 2005, when the program moved to Fridays in an 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time slot to finish its run. The show aired its final broadcast on September 2, 2005. 60 Minutes on CNBCIn 2011, CNBC began airing a 60 Minutes spin-off of its own, called 60 Minutes on CNBC. Hosted by Lesley Stahl and Steve Kroft, it airs updated business-related reports seen on the original broadcasts and offers footage that was not included when the segments first aired. 60 Minutes SportsIn 2013, CBS's sister premium television network Showtime premiered 60 Minutes Sports, a monthly spin-off focused on sports-related stories and classic interviews from the show's archives. Personalities from CBS Sports also contributed to the program. The spin-off was considered to be a competitor to HBO's Real Sports, and was cancelled in January 2017.[94][95][96] 60 in 6In June 2020, the show launched 60 in 6 on Quibi, featuring original weekly 6-minute programs. Correspondents are Enrique Acevedo, Seth Doane, Wesley Lowery, and Laurie Segall.[97][98] It had originally been announced to launch in April 2020.[99] On the June 21, 2020 broadcast of 60 in 6, Seth Doane covered the show's exposure to COVID-19 in a piece titled CBS News Battles COVID-19.[100] The piece mentions that CBS News flew in staffers, including those located in Seattle and Rome in early March 2020 to begin filming promotional material for 60 in 6. This brought COVID-19 positive individuals in close contact with CBS employees and resulted in the shutdown of multiple buildings located in Manhattan, including the CBS Broadcast Center.[101] 60 Minutes+In March 2021, Paramount+ premiered 60 Minutes+, a weekly spin-off aimed at a younger audience. The correspondents from 60 in 6 returned for this spin-off, as well as producer Jonathan Blakely.[102] In January 2022, it was announced that the show was cancelled after 30 episodes.[103] For the 60 Minutes 25th anniversary in 1993, Charles Kuralt interviewed Don Hewitt, the active correspondents, some former correspondents, and revisited notable stories and celebrities. The Australian version of 60 Minutes premiered on February 11, 1979. It still airs each Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. on the Nine Network and affiliates. Although Nine Network has the rights to the format, as of 2007[update], it does not have rights to stories from the U.S. program, which is owned by competitor 10 News Australia after Network Ten's acquisition by CBS in 2017. Nevertheless, stories from the flagship 60 Minutes program in the U.S. often air on the Australian program by subleasing them from Ten. In 1981, 60 Minutes won a Logie Award for their investigation of lethal abuses at the Chelmsford psychiatric hospital in Sydney.[104][105] GermanyIn the mid-1980s, an edited version (approx. 30 minutes in length) of the U.S. broadcast edition of 60 Minutes, entitled "60 Minutes: CBS im Dritten" ("60 Minutes: CBS on Channel 3") was shown for a time on West German television. This version retained the English-language soundtrack of the original, but also featured German dubbed. New ZealandThe New Zealand version of 60 Minutes has aired on national television since 1989, when it was originally launched on TV3. In 1992, the rights were acquired by TVNZ, who began broadcasting it in 1993. The network aired the program for nine years before dropping it in 2002 for its own program, entitled Sunday, which is currently the highest-rated current affairs show broadcast on New Zealand television, followed by 20/20. 60 Minutes was broadcast by rival network TV3, before switching to the Sky Television owned Prime channel in 2013, when the contract changed hands. BrazilIn 1992, the GNT channel (now GloboNews) brought its original version with dubbed subtitles from that country. And later, in 2004, Rede Bandeirantes, planned a licensed localized version, but the plan was cancelled. And even so that year, it returned as a frame, i.e. a rubric in the program Domingo Espetacular on Rede Record, a competitor of Rede Globo's program Fantástico. PortugalSIC Notícias acquired the broadcasting rights to the program in 2001. The original episodes were shown in Portugal with introductory and final comments by journalist Mário Crespo, who conducted the program until 2014. It is presently hosted by anchors of the aforementioned network on a rotational basis, who eventually adopted the previous model. ChileThe news program of National Broadcasting of Chile (TVN), the public television network in that country, was named 60 Minutos ("60 Minutes") from 1975 to 1988, but the program had no association with the US version and no investigative reporting.[citation needed] Other versions
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