Spatiotemporal distribution of great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias, Linnaeus 1758) along Italian coasts: Records from international Medlem program and other contributions

The Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias Linnaeus 1758), is an apex predator living in almost all the seas of the world, preferring cold-temperate and temperate waters among the 8 and the 25° C (Compagno et al., 2005). It is nevertheless present with important populations in only 8 areas of the globe: California and Baja California, Mexico, central Chile, New England, Mediterranean Sea, Western South Africa, southern Australia, New Zealand and Japan (Compagno et al., 2005). Recently it was added to IUCN redlist as vulnerable species (IUCN 2001). It is one of the 72 species that have been observed in Italian waters (Vacchi & Serena, 2010), the biology and ecology of this shark is still quite misunderstood. Despite being aware of the importance of this species in the marine ecosystem (Carey et al., 1982; Casey & Pratt, 1985; Klimley et al., 1992) and in spite attention paid to it by the public, much remains to be discovered about the Mediterranean Great White Shark. The aim of the present work was to organize and analyze data concerning the spatiotemporal pattern of distribution of white sharks along Italian coasts, collected by international LEM programme database and by other contributions.