Hamilton Island Australia
Great white sharks are at the very top of the marine food chain. Feared as man-eaters, they are only responsible for about 5-10 attacks a year, which are rarely fatal. Great whites are ultimate predators. Powerful streamlined bodies and a mouth full of terrifyingly sharp, serrated teeth, combine with super senses that can detect a single drop of blood from over a mile away. Hiding from a great white isn't an option as they can detect and home in on small electrical discharges from hearts and gills. Unlike most other sharks, live young are born that immediately swim away.
The great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death, is a species of large lamniform shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. The great white shark is mainly known for its size, with the largest individuals known to have approached or exceeded 6.1 m (20 ft) in length, and 2,268 kg (5,000 lb) in weight. This shark reaches its maturity around 15 years of age and can have a life span of over 30 years.
The great white shark is arguably the world's largest known extant macropredatory fish, and is one of the primary predators of marine mammals. It is also 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, and is ranked first in having the most attacks on humans. The IUCN list the great white shark as a vulnerable species, while it is included in Appendix II of CITES. The bestselling novel Jaws by Peter Benchley and the subsequent blockbuster film by Steven Spielberg depicted the great white shark as a "ferocious man eater". In reality, humans are not the preferred prey of the great white shark.
There are two species of land iguana found in the Galapagos; this species Conolophus subcristatus, is found on six islands and Conolophus pallidus is found only on Santa Fe. This species is very large, growing to lengths of over a meter. The short head is blunt and the back legs are thick and powerful, with long sharp claws on the toes. It is yellowish in colour with blotches of white, black, rust and brown and a row of spines passes along the centre of the neck and back.
Galapagos land iguanas are active during the day. They maintain their body temperature by basking in the sun to warm up and seeking shade when they become too hot. In the morning they can be found basking, but during the heat of midday they tend to retreat into shade. At night they sleep in burrows which they dig themselves. This species is omnivorous but tends to mainly eat plants and the fruits and pads of cactus trees. They may remove the spines with their claws, and these cacti provide them with plenty of moisture during dry spells. This species has an interesting relationship with Galapagos finches; the iguanas often raise themselves from the ground and allow the finches to remove ticks from their bodies.
Males defend territories, with displays involving head bobbing, biting and tail thrashing. During courtship, males aggressively court the females. After mating, the females set off on a migration to suitable egg-laying habitat. On Ferdinanda Island, females are known to travel up to 15 km to reach a suitable nesting site. They then lay two to 20 eggs in a 50 cm deep burrow. The nest site is guarded for a number of days after laying, in order to prevent other females from laying in the same place and damaging the eggs. The young hatch after 85 to 110 days; it then takes them up to a week to dig their way out of the burrow. Maturity is reached between eight and 15 years. If they survive the first years of life, when they are most vulnerable to predation and food scarcity, land iguanas can live for up to 50 years.
Land iguanas are endemic to the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. Conolophus subcristatus is native to six islands. In 1835 when Charles Darwin first went to the Galapagos, land iguanas were extremely numerous; he wrote: “I cannot give a more forcible proof of their number, then by stating that when we were left at Santiago Island, we could not for some time find a spot free from their burrows on which to pitch our single tent”. Sadly, this once thriving Santiago Island population has become completely extinct. This iguana lives in the drier areas of the islands on which they occur, in scrubby habitats. Females require access to areas of sandy or loose soil in which to lay their eggs; some females even use the ash around dormant volcanic craters.
The San Onofre State Beach offers various surf breaks for the surfers. These surf breaks ranges from gentle breaking waves to the most premiere surf breaks of the United States of America. There is also a church which provides sun bathing to its visitors. There is also a surf break area which consists of showers and flush pits toilets. This area provides varying ranges of surf breaks to its visitors.
