A theory perpetuated by the blockbuster movie Jaws, that large great white sharks will stay put as long as there is food around, could be be dead in the water.
Fictional shark scientist Matt Hooper, played by Richard Dreyfuss in the 1975 film, subscribed to the theory of territoriality, but his real-life counterparts beg to differ.
Researchers from the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and Deakin University have been tracking the movements of a 3.8-metre great white, which travelled more than 10,000 kilometres in just five months.
The adult male shark was fitted with a pop-up satellite tag at Lennox Head on the NSW north coast last year, as part of the state's SMART drumline program.
After being tagged, the shark swam more than 20 kilometres out to sea, then headed north to Queensland.
It roamed between 80 and 280km offshore between Agnes Water and the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, before heading to the cooler waters in southern NSW, Victoria and Tasmania.
Large great whites uncommon off surf beaches
DPI scientist Paul Butcher said more than 950 sharks had been tagged as part of the project, but this specimen was unusual because of its size.
"It's providing that science around … what those bigger white sharks are doing," Dr Butcher said.
"We don't catch a whole lot of animals in that 3.5-to-4m range.
"We've currently got three tagged around that 4m in size and we're tagging a few others at the moment, just to try to work out where they love to swim."
Dr Butcher said the data collected so far showed the larger great whites spent most of their time 20 to 30km offshore.
"They're diving down to 700 to 800m in water depth, but spending most of their time in the top 50m of the water column," he said.
"They don't integrate with those smaller white sharks that we predominantly see off our surf beaches.
"We really don't see that many large white sharks off our beaches."
The research team hopes to tag up to 20 more large great whites over the next two years.
