While frequently associated with Australia and South Africa, great white sharks tend to be found in temperate and tropical coastal waters all over the planet.

While Great White Sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) are primarily known as temperate-water predators, they are indeed found in tropical and subtropical waters. Research and satellite tagging in 2026 show that these sharks are highly migratory and often travel through tropical regions during long-distance journeys across the open ocean. In the tropics, they tend to stay in deeper, cooler water layers below the warm surface—a behavior known as "tropical submergence." They have been recorded near Hawaii, the Caribbean, and the tropical coasts of Australia and Africa. While they favor the nutrient-rich, cooler waters of the California coast or South Africa for hunting seals, their ability to regulate their body temperature (endothermy) allows them to navigate a wide range of thermal environments, including the deep tropics.