Most of these people (academics) are really underqualified, I am thinking that most ordinary folks even know that great whites occur in all of the oceans of the world, not just where that dummy lives.
Remember when, in the early 1900's, a great white swam 11 miles up a New Jersey river, into fresh water, and ate some kids, plus an adult, in a swimming hole, before escaping?
BTW, among sharks, great whites are kind of unmistakable in appearance, no matter their size, only one other shark, the mako, looks very much like them, so, if the aquarium worker was much up to speed on sharks, he's probably right on the ID.