Great White Shark size
While the average length of a great white is 4 to 5 m (13.3 to 16.6 ft), females generally being larger than males, the question of the maximum size of great white sharks has been subject to much debate, conjecture, and misinformation.
Richard Ellis and John E. McCosker, both academic shark experts, devote a full chapter in their book The Great White Shark (1991) to analysis of various accounts of extreme size.
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Quote from Jaws...
Mrs. Kintner: I just found out, that a girl got killed here last week, and you knew it! You knew there was a shark out there! You knew it was dangerous! But you let people go swimming anyway? You knew all those things! But still my boy is dead now. And there's nothing you can do about it. My boy is dead. I wanted you to know that.
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Today, most experts contend that the great white's "normal" maximum size is about 6 m (20 ft), with a maximum weight of about 1900 kg (4200 lb).
Any claims much beyond these limits are generally regarded as doubtful, and are closely scrutinized.
For some decades many ichthyological works, as well as the Guinness Book of World Records, listed two great whites as the largest individuals caught: an 11 m (36 feet) great white captured in south Australian waters near Port Fairy in the 1870s, and an 11.3 m (37.6 feet) shark trapped in a herring wier in New Brunswick, Canada in the 1930s.
While this was the commonly accepted maximum size, reports of 7.5 to 10 m (25 to 33.3 ft) great whites were common and often deemed credible.
Some researchers questioned the reliability of both measurements, noting they were much larger than any other accurately-reported great white.
The New Brunswick shark may have been a wrongly-identified basking shark, as both sharks share a similar lamniform body plan.
The question of the Port Fairy shark was settled in the 1970s, when J.E. Reynolds examined the shark's jaws and "found that the Port Fairy shark was of the order of 5 m (16.6 feet) in length".
Ellis and McCosker write that "the largest White Sharks accurately measured range between 19 and 21 feet [about 5.8 to 6.4 meters], and there are some questionable 23-footers [about close to 7 meters] in the popular - but not the scientific - literature".
Furthermore, they add that "these giants seem to disappear when a responsible observer approaches with a tape measure." (For more about legendary measurements, see The Submarine (shark)).
The largest specimen Ellis and McCosker endorse as reliably measured was 6.4 m (21.3 ft) long, caught in Cuban waters in 1945 (they note, however, that other experts have argued this individual might have been a few feet shorter).
There have since been claims of larger great whites, but, as Ellis and McCosker note, verification is often lacking and these extraordinarily large great whites have, upon examination, all proved of average size.
For example, a female said to be 7.13 meters (over 23 feet) was fished in Malta in 1987 by Alfredo Cutajar. In their book, Ellis and McCosker agree this shark seemed to be larger than average, but they did not endorse the measurement.
In the years since, experts eventually found reason to doubt the claim, due in no small part to conflicting accounts offered by Cutajar and others.
A BBC photo analyst concluded that even "allowing for error ... the shark is concluded to be in the 18.3 ft [5.5 m] range and NO WAY approaches the 23 ft [7 m] reported by Abela." (as in original)
According to the Canadian Shark Research Centre, the largest accurately measured great white shark was a female caught in August 1983 at Prince Edward Island off the Canadian coast (North Atlantic) and measured 6.1 m (20.3 ft).
The shark was caught by David McKendrick, a local resident from Alberton, West
Prince.
The question of maximum weight is complicated by an unresolved question: when weighing a great white, does one account for the weight of the shark's recent meals? With a single bite, a great white can take in up to 14 kg (30 lb) of flesh, and can gorge on several hundred pounds or kilograms of food.
Ellis and McCosker write that "it is likely that [great white] sharks can weigh as much as 2 tons", but also note that the largest verified examples weigh in at about 1.75 short tons (1.6 metric tons).
The largest great white recognized by the International Game Fish Association is one landed by Alf Dean in south Australian waters in 1959, weighing 1208 kg (2664 lb).
Several larger great whites caught by anglers have since been verified, but were later disallowed from formal recognition by IGFA monitors for rules violations.
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