Great Hammerhead Shark

The great hammerhead shark is distinguished from it's close relatives the smooth hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead and bonnethead, by the staight finish on the front of its head compared to the others.

Juvenile sharks have a slight curvature to the front of their heads whilst they develop.

This is a very large bodied shark with predominantly brown in color with a large first dorsal fin.

Growth

This is the largest of the hammerhead sharks and the average size of an adult is around 7.5ft with the females slightly smaller at just under 7ft. These large sharks reach an average weight of 500lbs at adulthood and the expected life span is 20-30yrs.

Habitat

Although this shark can be found both inshore and offshore in depths of 300ft, this shark is not a true pelagic species.

When scuba diving around Florida, you may find the great hammerhead shark near river mouths, bays and other estuaries.

You will often come across them when scuba diving coral reef drop offs near deeper waters where they enjoy swimming in depths of 100ft (30m).

Behaviour

This is a migratory shark which leaves the warmer waters each summer to swim towards the cooler waters of the pole.

At dusk you can find these sharks searching the seafloor using its electro-sensory system to locate prey such as lobster, crab, or stingrays.

This can be an aggressive shark but should pose no threat to your scuba diving exploration. It has been difficult to catalogue attacks over the years because of the similarity and many of the hammerhead species.

Eating Habits

This shark will prey on most marine life eating everything from invertebrates to other sharks! Using its sensory system it will hunt out crabs, lobster, grouper, stingrays, sharks, any marine life within its grasp.

Shark Videos

Scuba diving videos often capture the beauty of sharks as they swim through the water in their unique style.

Here is the opportunity to watch one of these sharks -Sphyrna mokarran - swimming near a reef in another part of the world. Similar video footage has been shot off Florida and Maine's coastal waters but this is one of my favorites because of the detail. (Press the button second right on the bottom of the video player to see it in full screen)...

Terence's Tip

This shark can be aggressive towards scuba divers and historically they have been responsible for 21 unprovoked attacks on people around the world.

The problem is with the similarity between all the hammerhead species it has been dificult to accurately record reported incidents.

As I keep emphasising the majority of Florida sharks are no threat but demand respect and these are usually only seen on the deeper dives such as wreck dives.