Hauraki Gulf
The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km², lies between, in anticlockwise order, the Auckland Region, the Hauraki Plains, the Coromandel Peninsula, Great Barrier Island. Most of the gulf is part of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. Hauraki is Māori for north wind. In 2014, the gulf was named Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana; the gulf is part of the Pacific Ocean, which it joins to the east. It is protected from the Pacific by Great Barrier Island and Little Barrier Island to the north, by the 80-kilometre-long Coromandel Peninsula to the east, it is thus well protected against all but northern winds. Three large channels join the gulf to the Pacific. Colville Channel lies between the Coromandel Peninsula and Great Barrier, Cradock Channel lies between the two islands, Jellicoe Channel lies between Little Barrier and the North Auckland Peninsula. To the north of Auckland several peninsulas jut into the gulf, notably the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.
Tiritiri Matangi Island is near the end of this peninsula. Further north, Kawau Island nestles under the Tawharanui Peninsula. Numerous beaches dot the shores of the gulf, many of them well known for surfing. During the last glaciation period the gulf was dry land, with the sea level being around 100–110 m lower than at present; the gulf was submerged. In the west of the gulf lie a string of islands guarding the mouth of the Waitematā Harbour, one of Auckland's two harbours; these include Ponui Island, Waiheke Island, Tiritiri Matangi and the iconic dome of Rangitoto Island, connected to the much older Motutapu Island by a causeway. The islands are separated from the mainland by the Tamaki Rangitoto Channel. Other islands in the gulf include Browns Island, Motuihe Island, Pakihi Island, Pakatoa Island, Rakino Island, Rotoroa Island in the inner gulf, around Waiheke and Rangitoto. At the southern end of the gulf is the wide shallow Firth of Thames. Beyond this lie the Hauraki Plains, drained by the Waihou River and the Piako River.
The Hunua Ranges and hills of the Coromandel Peninsula rise on either side of the Firth. Some particular common or known animals include bottlenose and common dolphins, the latter sometimes seen in "super schools" of 300-500 animals or more, while various species of whales and orcas are a common sight. There are 25 species of marine mammals in the gulf. Nearly a third of the world's marine mammal species visit the Marine Park. Among larger cetaceans, Bryde's whales are residents and common in the Gulf, their presence in these busily travelled waters leads to a large number of ship strikes, with sometimes several of the whales dying each year from collisions with shipping vessels or sport boats; the population remaining is estimated to be between 100-200. In recent years, increases in numbers of migrating baleen whales are confirmed long after the end of hunting era; these are humpback whales, southern blue whales, pygmy blue whales, southern minke whales. Less fin whales and sei whales are seen as well.
For southern right whales, these whales will become seasonal residents in the gulf as the populations recover. Sperm whales visit occasionally. Many of the islands are official or unofficial bird sanctuaries, holding important or critically endangered species like kiwi, brown teal and grey-faced petrel. Centred on the main conservation island of Tiritiri Matangi and Little Barrier Island, numerous bird species that were locally extinct have been reintroduced in the last decades, while there have been some occurring bird "re-colonisations" after introduced pests were removed from breeding and nesting grounds; the gulf is a vibrant natural environment, which has seen significant damage during the 20th and early 21st century from human use. A major study by the Hauraki Gulf Forum in 2011 found that all environmental indicators were still worsening or stable at problematic levels, leading a major newspaper to title the gulf a "toxic paradise". Damaging were the introduction of industrialised fishing, with for example snapper fishing peaking in the 1970s at more than 10,000 tonnes a year.
This severe overfishing, which unbalanced the marine environment by the removal of a main predator in the food chain, led to further degradation, such as a widespread disappearance of kelp beds as they were overtaken by kina barrens. Trawler fishing in general is seen as damaging the gulf, lobster stock are reported as not rebuilding, it is estimated. Damaging are the results of nitrogen carried into the gulf from surrounding agricultural land, with 90% coming from the dairy-farming runoff into the Firth of Thames. Other exploitation such as the dredging of the mussel beds of the Firth of Thames, reaching its height in 1961 with an estimated 15 million mussels taken have led to damages which have not been recovered forty years possibly due to the dredging having destroyed the underwater surfaces, sediment drainage from the agriculture in the Firth of Thames affecting the mus
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or maybe compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products. Several European countries operate a formal process linked to the tax system allowing some churches to assess tithes. Traditional Jewish law and practice has included various forms of tithing since ancient times. Orthodox Jews practice ma'aser kesafim. In modern Israel, Jews continue to follow the laws of agricultural tithing, e.g. ma'aser rishon, terumat ma'aser, ma'aser sheni. With respect to Christianity, many denominations hold Jesus Christ taught that "tithing must be done in conjunction with a deep concern for justice and faithfulness". Tithing was taught at early Christian church councils, including the Council of Tours in 567, as well as the Synod of Mâcon in 585. Tithing remains an important doctrine in many Christian denominations, such as the Congregationalist Churches, Methodist Churches and Seventh-day Adventist Church.
None of the extant extrabiblical laws of the Ancient Near East deal with tithing, although other secondary documents show that it was a widespread practice in the Ancient Near East. William W. Hallo recognises comparisons for Israel with its ancient Near Eastern environment, however, as regards tithes, comparisons with other ancient Near Eastern evidence is ambiguous, Ancient Near Eastern literature provides scant evidence for the practice of tithing and the collection of tithes. Listed below are some specific instances of the Mesopotamian tithe, taken from The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Vol. 4 "E" p. 369: "the palace has taken eight garments as your tithe" "...eleven garments as tithe".. "... Shamash demands the tithe..." "four minas of silver, the tithe of Bel and Nergal..." "...he has paid, in addition to the tithe for Ninurta, the tax of the gardiner" "...the tithe of the chief accountant, he has delivered it to Shamash" "...why do you not pay the tithe to the Lady-of-Uruk?"
"... owes barley and dates as balance of the tithe of the **years three and four" "...the tithe of the king on barley of the town..." "...with regard to the elders of the city whom has **summoned to tithe..." "...the collector of the tithe of the country Sumundar..." "..., in charge of the tithe..." Hebrew is a Semitic language, related to the lingua franca of that time. In Genesis 14:18–20, after rescuing Lot, met with Melchizedek. After Melchizedek's blessing, Abraham gave him a tenth of everything he has obtained from battle: "Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine, he was priest of God Most High, he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Abram gave him a tenth of everything.” In Genesis 28:16–22, after his visionary dream of Jacob's Ladder and receiving a blessing from God, promises God a tenth: "Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, I did not know it.”
And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, this is the gate of heaven.” So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel. Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace the Lord shall be my God, this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.” The tithe is mentioned in the Books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. The tithe system was organized in corresponding to the Shemittah-cycle; these tithes were in reality more like taxes for the people of Israel and were mandatory, not optional giving. This tithe was distributed locally "within thy gates" to assist the poor; every year, Terumah, Ma'aser Rishon and Terumat Ma'aser were separated from the grain and oil.
The first tithe is giving of one tenth of agricultural produce to the Levite. During the First Temple period, the first tithe was given to the Levites. At the beginning of the Second Temple construction and his Beth din implemented its giving to the kohanim. Unlike other offerings which were restricted to consumption within the tabernacle, the second tithe could be consumed anywhere. On years one, two and five of the Shemittah-cycle, God commanded the Children of Israel to take a second tithe, to be brought to the place of the Temple; the owner of the produce was to separate and bring 1/10 of his finished produce to the Old City of Jerusalem after separating Terumah and the first tithe, but if the family lived too far from Jerusalem, the tithe could be redeemed upon coins. The Bible required the owner of the redeemed
Tuatara
Tuatara are reptiles endemic to New Zealand. Although resembling most lizards, they are part of the order Rhynchocephalia, their name derives from the Māori language, means "peaks on the back". The single species of tuatara is the only surviving member of its order, which flourished around 200 million years ago, their most recent common ancestor with any other extant group is with the squamates. For this reason, tuatara are of interest in the study of the evolution of lizards and snakes, for the reconstruction of the appearance and habits of the earliest diapsids, a group of amniote tetrapods that includes dinosaurs and crocodilians. Tuatara are greenish brown and grey, measure up to 80 cm from head to tail-tip and weigh up to 1.3 kg with a spiny crest along the back pronounced in males. They have two rows of teeth in the upper jaw overlapping one row on the lower jaw, unique among living species, they are unusual in having a pronounced photoreceptive eye, the third eye, thought to be involved in setting circadian and seasonal cycles.
They are able to hear, although no external ear is present, have unique features in their skeleton, some of them evolutionarily retained from fish. Tuatara are sometimes referred to as "living fossils", which has generated significant scientific debate. While mapping its genome, researchers have discovered that the species has between five and six billion base pairs of DNA sequence, nearly twice that of humans; the tuatara Sphenodon punctatus has been protected by law since 1895. A second species, S. guntheri, was recognised in 1989, but since 2009 it has been reclassified as a subspecies. Tuatara, like many of New Zealand's native animals, are threatened by habitat loss and introduced predators, such as the Polynesian rat. Tuatara were extinct on the mainland, with the remaining populations confined to 32 offshore islands until the first North Island release into the fenced and monitored Karori Sanctuary in 2005. During routine maintenance work at Karori Sanctuary in late 2008, a tuatara nest was uncovered, with a hatchling found the following autumn.
This is thought to be the first case of tuatara breeding in the wild on the New Zealand North Island in over 200 years. Tuatara, along with other, now-extinct members of the order Sphenodontia, belong to the superorder Lepidosauria, the only surviving taxon within Lepidosauromorpha. Squamates and tuatara both show caudal autotomy, have transverse cloacal slits; the origin of the tuatara lies close to the split between the Lepidosauromorpha and the Archosauromorpha. Though tuatara resemble lizards, the similarity is superficial, because the family has several characteristics unique among reptiles; the typical lizard shape is common for the early amniotes. Tuatara were classified as lizards in 1831 when the British Museum received a skull; the genus remained misclassified until 1867, when Albert Günther of the British Museum noted features similar to birds and crocodiles. He proposed the order Rhynchocephalia for its fossil relatives. Many disparately related species were subsequently added to the Rhynchocephalia, resulting in what taxonomists call a "wastebasket taxon".
Williston proposed the Sphenodontia to include only tuatara and their closest fossil relatives in 1925. Sphenodon is derived from the Greek for "wedge" and "tooth". Tuatara have been referred to as living fossils, which means that they retain many basal characteristics from around the time of the squamate–rhynchocephalian split. Morphometric analyses of variation in jaw morphology among tuatara and extinct Rhynchocephalian relatives have been argued to demonstrate morphological conservatism and support for the classification of tuatara as a'living fossil', but the reliability of these results has been criticised and debated. Taxonomic research on Sphenodontia indicates that the group has undergone a variety of changes throughout the Mesozoic, the rate of molecular evolution for tuatara has been estimated to be among the fastest of any animal yet examined. Many of the niches occupied by lizards today were held by sphenodontians. There was a successful group of aquatic sphenodontians known as pleurosaurs, which differed markedly from living tuatara.
Tuatara show cold-weather adaptations. For instance, Palaeopleurosaurus appears to have had a much shorter lifespan compared to the modern tuatara. A species of sphenodontine is known from the Miocene Saint Bathans Fauna. Whether it is referable to Sphenodon proper is not clear, but is assumed to be related to tuataras. While there is considered to be only one living species of tuatara, two species were identified: Sphenodon punctatus, or northern tuatara, the much rarer Sphenodon guntheri, or Brothers Island tuatara, confined to North Brother Island in Cook Strait; the specific name punctatus is Latin for "spotted", guntheri refers to German-born British herpetologist Albert Günther. A 2009 paper re-examined the genetic bases used to distinguish the two supposed species of tuatara, concluded they only represent geographic variants, only one species should be recognized; the northern tuatara was classified as Sphenodon punctatus punctatus and the Brothers Island tuatara as Sphenodon punctatus guntheri.
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Colocasia esculenta
Colocasia esculenta is a tropical plant grown for its edible corms, the root vegetables most known as taro. It is the most cultivated species of several plants in the Araceae family which are used as vegetables for their corms and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in African and South Asian cultures, taro is believed to have been one of the earliest cultivated plants; this plant and its root is called taro, but it has different names in different countries like for instance eddoe or malanga. The plant is called tales in Java, oah in Hokkien,cocoyam in Ghana, taro in Tahiti, ndalo in Fiji, talo in Samoa, gabi in the Philippines, colcas in Arabic, kolokasi or kolokas in Cyprus, kalo in Hawaii and amateke in Rwanda. Taro is referred to as "elephant ears" when grown as an ornamental plant. Linnaeus described two species, Colocasia esculenta and Colocasia antiquorum, but many botanists consider them both to be members of a single variable species, the correct name for, Colocasia esculenta; the specific epithet, means "edible" in Latin.
Taro is related to Xanthosoma and Caladium, plants grown ornamentally, like them it is sometimes loosely called elephant ear. Similar taro varieties include giant taro, swamp taro, arrowleaf elephant's ear. Colocasia esculenta is a perennial, tropical plant grown as a root vegetable for its edible, starchy corm; the plant has rhizomes of different sizes. Leaves sprout from the rhizome, they are light green beneath. They are triangular-ovate, sub-rounded and mucronate at the apex, with the tip of the basal lobes rounded or sub-rounded; the petiole is 0.8–1.2 m high. The path can be up to 25 cm long; the spadix is about three fifths as long as the spathe, with flowering parts up to 8 mm in diameter. The female portion is at the fertile ovaries intermixed with sterile white ones. Neuters grow above the females, are rhomboid or irregular orium lobed, with six or eight cells; the appendage is shorter than the male portion. Colocasia esculenta is thought to be native to Southern India and Southeast Asia, but is naturalised.
Colocasia is thought to have originated in the Indomalaya ecozone in East India and Bangladesh. It spread by cultivation eastward into East Asia and the Pacific Islands. Taro was first native to the lowland wetlands of Malaysia, where it is called taloes. In Australia, Colocasia esculenta var. aquatilis is native to the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In Turkey, Colocasia esculenta is locally known as gölevez and grown on the Mediterranean coast, such as the Alanya district of Antalya Province and the Anamur district of Mersin Province. In the southeastern United States, this plant is recognized as an invasive species. Many populations can be found growing near drain ditches and bayous in Houston, Texas. Taro is one of the most ancient cultivated crops. Taro is found in tropical and subtropical regions of South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea, northern Australia and is polymorphic, making taxonomy and distinction between wild and cultivated types difficult, it is believed that they were domesticated independently multiple times, with authors giving possible locations as New Guinea, Mainland Southeast Asia, northeastern India, based on the assumed native range of the wild plants.
However, more recent studies have pointed out that wild taro may have a much larger native distribution than believed, wild breeding types may likely be indigenous to other parts of Island Southeast Asia. Archaeological traces of taro exploitation have been recovered from numerous sites, though whether these were cultivated or wild types can not be ascertained, they include the Niah Caves of Borneo, dated to <40,000 BP. It should be noted that in the case of Kuk Swamp, there is evidence of formalized agriculture emerging by about c. 10,000 BP, with evidence of cultivated plots, though which plant was cultivated remains unknown. Taro were carried into the Pacific Islands by Austronesian peoples from around 1300 BC, where they became a staple crop of Polynesians, along with other types of "taros", like Alocasia macrorrhizos, Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, Cyrtosperma merkusii, they are the most important and the most preferred among the four, because they were less to contain the irritating raphides present in the other plants.
Taro is identified as one of the staples of Micronesia, from archaeological evidence dating back to the pre-colonial Latte Period, indicating that it was carried by Micronesians when they colonized the islands. Taro pollen and starch residue have been identified in Lapita sites, dated to around c. 3,050 - 2,500 cal BP. At around 3.3 million metric tons per year, Nigeria is the largest producer of taro in the world. Taro can be grown in paddy fields where water is abundant or in upland situations where water is supplied by rainfall or supplemental irrigation. Taro is one of the few crops; this is d
Pania
Pania styled "Pania of the Reef", is a figure of Māori mythology, a symbol of the New Zealand city of Napier. A statue of Pania on Napier's Marine Parade is a tourist attraction. Pania was a beautiful maiden who lived in the sea on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. By daylight she swam about with creatures of her reef world but after sunset would go to a stream that ran into the bay where the city of Napier now exists, she would travel up the stream to an area. Karitoki, the handsome son of a Māori chief, quenched his thirst every evening at the stream where Pania rested because it had the sweetest water, he was unaware she was observing him for many weeks. It carried on the wind to Karitoki. Karitoki had never seen someone so beautiful and fell in love. Pania fell in love and they pledged their lives to each other and were secretly married. Pania and Karitoki went to his whare. At sunrise, Pania prepared to leave, she explained that as a creature of the ocean, when the sirens of the sea called her each morning, she could not survive if she did not go to them.
She promised to return every evening and their marriage continued on that basis. Karitoki boasted to his friends about his beautiful wife, but no one believed him because they had never seen her. Frustrated by this, Karitoki consulted a kaumatua in the village who believed Karitoki as he knew ocean maidens did exist; the kaumatua told Karitoki that being a sea creature, Pania would not be allowed to return to the sea if she swallowed cooked food. That night, as Pania slept, Karitoki put it in Pania's mouth; as he did so, Ruru the morepork called Pania was startled from her sleep. Horrified that Karitoki had put her life in jeopardy, Pania ran to the sea, her people came to the surface and drew her down into the depths as Karitoki swam frantically about the ocean looking for her. He never saw her again; when people now look deep into the water over the reef, some say they can see Pania with arms outstretched, appealing to her former lover. It is unknown whether she is imploring him to explain his treachery, or expressing her continuing love.
The sea off Napier is now protected by the son of Pania and Karitoki. He is the kaitiaki of the area, a taniwha who disguises himself as a shark, a stingray or an octopus. A 1.5 metre statue of Pania was unveiled at Napier's Marine Parade on 10 June 1954 by Prime Minister Sidney Holland, has since been much photographed by tourists. The statue was commissioned by members of the Thirty Thousand Club after the Anglican Bishop of Aotearoa, Frederick Augustus Bennett, related the legend of Pania to them. Several students from Hukarere Girls College were photographed as models for the statue, Mei Irihapiti Robin, was selected. A clay likeness of the photograph of Mei and an actual traditional Piupiu skirt were made by the Italian Marble Company of Carrara in Carrara, Italy; the clay model was used to produce the bronze statue, estimated to weigh between 60 and 70 kg. The statue has been compared to The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. In 1982, the statue was shot in the head; the damage was repaired.
On 27 October 2005 the statue was stolen. Police were unsure of the motive but thought activism unlikely, a prank unlikely because theft was premeditated, theft of the bronze for meltdown was unlikely because it was worth only about NZD$200, they thought a ransom was possible because a statue worth $250,000 earlier stolen from a restaurant in Waikanae was returned after $10,000 ransom was paid. Pania was discovered by Jeff Foley and recovered by police on November 4, restored replaced on November 16. Taniwha Information on mythology and the statue
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and second most populous urban area of New Zealand, with 418,500 residents. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the major population centre of the southern North Island, is the administrative centre of the Wellington Region, which includes the Kapiti Coast and Wairarapa, its latitude is 41°17′S, making it the world's southernmost capital of a sovereign state. Wellington features a temperate maritime climate, is the world's windiest city by average wind speed; the Wellington urban area comprises four local authorities: Wellington City, on the peninsula between Cook Strait and Wellington Harbour, contains the central business district and about half the population. As the nation's capital since 1865, the New Zealand Government and Parliament, Supreme Court and most of the public service are based in the city. Architectural sights include the Government Building—one of the largest wooden buildings in the world—as well as the iconic Beehive.
Wellington is home to several of the largest and oldest cultural institutions in the nation such the National Archives, the National Library, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, numerous theatres. It plays host to many artistic and cultural organisations, including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Royal New Zealand Ballet. One of the world's most liveable cities, the 2016 Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranked Wellington 12th in the world. Wellington's economy is service-based, with an emphasis on finance, business services, government, it is the centre of New Zealand's film and special effects industries, a hub for information technology and innovation, with two public research universities. Wellington is one of New Zealand's chief seaports and serves both domestic and international shipping; the city is served by the third busiest airport in the country. Wellington's transport network includes train and bus lines which reach as far as the Kapiti Coast and Wairarapa, ferries connect the city to the South Island.
Wellington takes its name from Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington and victor of the Battle of Waterloo: his title comes from the town of Wellington in the English county of Somerset. It was named in November 1840 by the original settlers of the New Zealand Company on the suggestion of the directors of the same, in recognition of the Duke's strong support for the company's principles of colonisation and his "strenuous and successful defence against its enemies of the measure for colonising South Australia". One of the founders of the settlement, Edward Jerningham Wakefield, reported that the settlers "took up the views of the directors with great cordiality and the new name was at once adopted". In the Māori language, Wellington has three names. Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara refers to Wellington Harbour and means "the great harbour of Tara". In New Zealand Sign Language, the name is signed by raising the index and ring fingers of one hand, palm forward, to form a "W", shaking it from side to side twice.
The city's location close to the mouth of the narrow Cook Strait leads to its vulnerability to strong gales, leading to the city's nickname of "Windy Wellington". Legends recount that Kupe explored the district in about the 10th century; the earliest date with hard evidence for Maori living in New Zealand is about 1280. Situated near the geographic centre of the country, Wellington was well placed for trade. In 1839 it was chosen as the first major planned settlement for British immigrants coming to New Zealand; the settlement was named in honour of Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington and victor of the Battle of Waterloo. European settlement began with the arrival of an advance party of the New Zealand Company on the ship Tory on 20 September 1839, followed by 150 settlers on the Aurora on 22 January 1840. Food processing plants, engineering industries, vehicle assembly and oil refineries were located in the NE which caused the main industrial growth in Hutt valley; the settlers constructed their first homes at Petone on the flat area at the mouth of the Hutt River.
When that proved swampy and flood-prone they transplanted the plans, drawn without regard for the hilly terrain. In 1865, Wellington became the capital city in place of Auckland, which William Hobson had made the capital in 1841; the New Zealand Parliament had first met in Wellington on 7 July 1862, on a temporary basis. There had been some concerns that the more populous South Island would choose to form a separate colony in the British Empire. Several Commissioners invited from Australia, chosen for their neutral status, declared that Wellington was a suitable location because of
Great white shark
The great white shark known as the great white, white shark or white pointer, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. The great white shark is notable for its size, with larger female individuals growing to 6.1 m in length and 1,905 kg in weight at maturity. However, most are smaller. 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, making it one of the longest lived cartilaginous fish known. 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. Great white sharks can swim at speeds of over 56 km/h, can swim to depths of 1,200 m; the great white shark has no known natural predators other than, on rare occasions, the killer whale. The great white shark is arguably the world's largest known extant macropredatory fish, is one of the primary predators of marine mammals.
It is 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, is responsible for more recorded human bite incidents than any other shark; the species faces numerous ecological challenges. The IUCN lists the great white shark as a vulnerable species, it is included in Appendix II of CITES, it is protected by several national governments such as Australia. 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 the preferred prey of the great white shark, but the great white is responsible for the largest number of reported and identified fatal unprovoked shark attacks on humans; the great white shark was one of the many amphibia described by Linnaeus in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, its first scientific name, Squalus carcharias. Sir Andrew Smith gave it Carcharodon as its generic name in 1833, in 1873.
The generic name was identified with Linnaeus' specific name and the current scientific name, Carcharodon carcharias, was finalized. Carcharodon comes from the Ancient Greek words κάρχαρος, ὀδούς, ὀδών; the earliest known fossils of the great white shark are about 16 million years old, during the mid-Miocene epoch. However, the phylogeny of the great white is still in dispute; the original hypothesis for the great white's origins is that it shares a common ancestor with a prehistoric shark, such as the C. megalodon. C. megalodon had teeth that were superficially not too dissimilar with those of great white sharks, but its teeth were far larger. Although cartilaginous skeletons do not fossilize, C. megalodon is estimated to have been larger than the great white shark, estimated at up to 17 m and 59,413 kg. Similarities among the physical remains and the extreme size of both the great white and C. megalodon led many scientists to believe these sharks were related, the name Carcharodon megalodon was applied to the latter.
However, a new hypothesis proposes that the great white are distant relatives. The great white is more related to an ancient mako shark, Isurus hastalis, than to the C. megalodon, a theory that seems to be supported with the discovery of a complete set of jaws with 222 teeth and 45 vertebrae of the extinct transitional species Carcharodon hubbelli in 1988 and published on 14 November 2012. In addition, the new hypothesis assigns C. megalodon to the genus Carcharocles, which comprises the other megatoothed sharks. Great white sharks live in all coastal and offshore waters which have water temperature between 12 and 24 °C, with greater concentrations in the United States, South Africa, Oceania and the Mediterranean including Sea of Marmara and Bosphorus. One of the densest known populations is found around South Africa; the great white is an epipelagic fish, observed in the presence of rich game, such as fur seals, sea lions, other sharks, large bony fish species. In the open ocean, it has been recorded at depths as great as 1,200 m.
These findings challenge the traditional notion. 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 and dive down to around 900 m. After they arrive, they do short dives to about 300 m for up to ten minutes. Another white shark, 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 in under nine months; these observations argue against traditional theories that white sharks are coastal territorial predators, open up the possibility of interaction between shark populations that were thought to have been discrete. The reasons for their migration and what they do at their destination is still unknown. Possi
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