According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, great white sharks live in many parts of the world because they have no trouble migrating long distances ; they can swim up to 35 mph and have a warm-blooded circulatory system that allows them to swim in colder waters. They like to congregate in areas with a lot of fish, giving them easier access to food. These areas include coastal regions in Australia, California, New Zealand, and Africa.
Here are 10 places where you're most likely to see a great white shark:
The Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco are a food paradise for great whites.
The Farallon Islands are a small chain of islands and a wildlife refuge about 27 miles west of San Francisco. They are part of an ocean region called the " Red Triangle ," which is named for the high number of great white shark attacks that occur there. But don't worry the sharks mainly feast on the population of elephant seals and sea lions that breed near the islands.
The Farallons are closed to the public, but there are companies that give boat tours of the area. In October 2018, the Coast Guard rescued a diver who was believed to be filming a documentary in the area and was attacked by a great white shark .
Dyer Island near Gansbaai in South Africa has hundreds of great white sharks.
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If you visit the area, nicknamed "shark alley," you can go on a cage dive to see them up close or watch them from a boat tour.
The population of great white sharks in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is rising.
According to National Geographic, the booming gray seal population has attracted the sharks. Scientists from Florida Atlantic University suggested the northern Atlantic waters might also serve as a nursery for baby white sharks .
The Neptune Islands in Australia are bursting with great white shark activity.
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For this reason, it remains the only place in Australia where you can cage dive to view them. And while using food bait is a common practice to bring the sharks closer, one tour operator cited in Australian Geographic has shown the sharks are strangely attracted to the sounds of classic rock .
The island of Guadalupe in Baja California is a famous place to watch sharks underwater.
Sharkcrew/Horizon Charters/Wikimedia Commons
Guadalupe Island, located about 150 miles west of Baja California, has been an official nature preserve since 1925.
The turquoise waters that surround the Island make finding prey a walk in the park . And with the exception of tourism the region is fairly remote, so sharks are free to roam unbothered. Today it remains one of the most popular places in the world to witness great white sharks in action.
Monterey, California, has seen a spike in great white shark populations over the past two years.
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Stewart Island, New Zealand, is notorious for aggressive great white sharks.
Since fishing is one of New Zealand's largest industries, encounters with the massive sharks are frequent, and they can get caught in nets and other gear.
In 2016, one Stewart Island resident told The Guardian , "We see them all the time and not just one, sometimes three or four surrounding our boats."
San Diego is where young great white sharks go to play.
In 2011, Andy Nosal, then a shark researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told the Voice of San Diego that paddleboarders in the San Diego area regularly spot great white sharks in deep waters and don't report them because they're so common.
False Bay in South Africa is the home of the flying great white sharks.
South Africa's False Bay is famous for being one of the few sites where you can see great white sharks breaching to catch prey . This usually occurs during winter, which begins in May in the Southern Hemisphere, and coincides with migrating seal populations.
New South Wales, Australia, has a booming baby shark population.
