KEY POINTS:
It's one of the best-known scenes in cinema history, when actor Richard Dreyfuss cuts open a great white shark known as Jaws to reveal its catch: a crushed tin can and a licence plate.
This time around Auckland Museum staff are not so sure what they will find when they perform a necropsy on a great white shark that a fisherman found dead in a gill net last week in the Kaipara Harbour.
"Maybe a seal, a penguin or some whale blubber, who knows," said Auckland Museum Marine curator Tom Trnski. "They are the apex predator of the ocean ... whale sharks are bigger but they eat plankton - when great whites get bigger they feed on marine mammals."
The shark, weighing 300kg and three metres long, was probably an adolescent, said Mr Trnski, and "not particularly big".
"There are confirmed reports of these sharks getting up to six metres long and much bigger but at 300kg you could imagine this one would be pretty chunky."
Mr Trnski said despite their fearsome profile, little was known about the great white and he hoped the necropsy would help with research.
The operation, which Mr Trnski will perform with the Department of Conservation's Clinton Duffy, will examine the shark's stomach contents and take measurements of its internal organs.
Mr Trnski said great whites could be found throughout New Zealand waters.
Recent studies had found great whites covering vast distances between South Africa and Australia.
There had also been reports of great whites travelling as far north as Tonga from New Zealand to follow northbound whale migrations.
"They tend to be around the tropics for the calving around October and November," he said.
Big cut
What: A great white shark necropsy
Where: Loading dock, south eastern corner, Auckland Museum
When: Thursday 11am - 1pm
