How does a shark find its food, and how does it catch it? Great white sharks are apex predators, at the top of the ocean food chain. Many sharks are most active and feeding at dawn, dusk and night. Let's follow a hunt from the first sign of a meal to the bite.

A hunt can begin with the nose and the ears. Sharks have a very good sense of smell and are sometimes called swimming noses. Their ears sit inside their heads, and sharks hear well with them. A shark can pick up the sounds of fish splashing, and it hears low sounds best, like those made by a struggling fish.

A shark has more senses than a nose and a pair of ears. Its lateral line picks up vibrations and flow in the water, which helps it sense nearby prey. It can also sense the weak electric fields given off by the bodies of living animals. Look at its eyes, too. Its eyesight is sharp, and its pupils open and close to control the light, as ours do.

Now look at a shark's colors. Many sharks are dark on top and light underneath. This pattern, called countershading, helps hide them. A great white shark has a white belly and a gray or brown back.

Once a shark has found something, it has to get there. Look at its skin and its fins. Its skin is covered with tiny tooth-like scales called denticles. They point toward the tail and reduce friction from the water as the shark swims. A shark's pectoral fins, the pair near the front of its body, give it lift as it swims.

What happens when a hunting shark reaches its food? Look at its teeth. It uses them to bite. A shark loses teeth all its life and grows new ones to replace them. It has many rows of teeth that are constantly replaced, and some kinds go through about 30,000 teeth in a lifetime. White shark teeth are broad, triangular and serrated.

Not every shark bites the same way, and teeth come in different shapes. Some have flat, strong teeth for crushing hard-shelled animals such as shellfish. Tiger sharks have strong jaws and serrated teeth that can crack the shells of sea turtles. They eat almost anything, including fish, turtles, birds and even garbage.

What does a great white eat? It depends on how old the shark is. A baby white shark is about 4 feet long when it is born. Young white sharks eat bottom fish, smaller sharks, rays and schooling fish before they move on to seals. Adult great whites mostly hunt seals and sea lions. As of November 2026, a great white shark can grow to about 20 feet long.

Whale sharks catch food in a very different way, with no big bite at all. The whale shark is the biggest fish in the sea, and as of November 2026 whale sharks are usually about 18 to 32 feet long. A whale shark swims with its mouth open and filters tiny food out of the water. That food is very small sea animals called plankton. Its teeth are tiny and play little part in feeding.

What about people? Sharks do not hunt people. People are not on the menu of the sharks that bite most often. As of November 2026, there are about 70 unprovoked shark bites on people worldwide in a typical year. From 2004 to 2013 the number of people bitten by sharks ranged from 53 to 81 a year. That is a very small number next to the millions of people who go in the sea.

Words to know

• apex: very top
• countershading: hiding colors
• serrated: with jagged edges
• plankton: tiny sea animals
• unprovoked: not started