The Role of the Great White
The role of the Great White Shark as a predator is to balance out the population of Seals and Sea Lions. By doing so, it spares the fish population from going completely extinct.
Without the Great White Sharks
The Great White Shark is an apex predator, which means it is on top of the food chain. Removal of top-level predators can cause a ‘top down’ effect on organisms lower in the food webs causing the population of prey to explode. When this happens the amount of the prey starve themselves out of food because there is nothing to control the population; changing the ecology of the entire system.
It is thought that if the Great white shark were to become extinct, the population of the Seal and the Sea Lion would explode. Although this sounds good for the Seals and the Sea Lions, this has a negative affect. They would do exactly what any prey of the Great White would do in the paragraph above.
The great white shark is a very important part of the oceans ecosystem and plays a major role in the Ocean Biome. It would be most likely be removed/ go extinct by over fishing, but this is a possibility. This is easy to believe because the great white sharks take 4-7 years to mature and only have up to 7 pups. Since the great white is the apex predator or the top of the food chain, then the populations of the great white’s major food sources would no longer have a main predator. This means that in the sharks’ absence, the population of the major prey would explode. With no one to hunt and kill them for food, the population of Seals and Sea Lions would sky rocket, eventually their populations outgrowing their food source.
In the absence of the great white shark the biggest impact would be on the Seals and Sea Lions because they would no longer have a main predator to eat them and balance their population. So you might think that the Great White is a menace because it hunts Seals, but the truth is that if the shark wasn't there to kill and eat the Seals then they would have no limit to how much their population would increase. With their ever growing population they would eventually eat the fish in the area until there is next to or nothing left. This is bad for both the seals and the fish because the fish are going extinct in that area, such as the lamprey or salmon, octopus and squid, and also since the food source is scarce or nothing at all the seals will die of starvation and either go extinct or have to migrate to find food. So even though the great white is killing the seals and sea lions it is keeping balance in its ecosystem and Biome.
It is thought that if the Great white shark were to become extinct, the population of the Seal and the Sea Lion would explode. Although this sounds good for the Seals and the Sea Lions, this has a negative affect. They would do exactly what any prey of the Great White would do in the paragraph above.
The great white shark is a very important part of the oceans ecosystem and plays a major role in the Ocean Biome. It would be most likely be removed/ go extinct by over fishing, but this is a possibility. This is easy to believe because the great white sharks take 4-7 years to mature and only have up to 7 pups. Since the great white is the apex predator or the top of the food chain, then the populations of the great white’s major food sources would no longer have a main predator. This means that in the sharks’ absence, the population of the major prey would explode. With no one to hunt and kill them for food, the population of Seals and Sea Lions would sky rocket, eventually their populations outgrowing their food source.
In the absence of the great white shark the biggest impact would be on the Seals and Sea Lions because they would no longer have a main predator to eat them and balance their population. So you might think that the Great White is a menace because it hunts Seals, but the truth is that if the shark wasn't there to kill and eat the Seals then they would have no limit to how much their population would increase. With their ever growing population they would eventually eat the fish in the area until there is next to or nothing left. This is bad for both the seals and the fish because the fish are going extinct in that area, such as the lamprey or salmon, octopus and squid, and also since the food source is scarce or nothing at all the seals will die of starvation and either go extinct or have to migrate to find food. So even though the great white is killing the seals and sea lions it is keeping balance in its ecosystem and Biome.