Where are all the great white sharks?
Sharks are part of the marine family. Where can the Great White Sharks be found in South Africa?
Gansbaai in South Africa is the Great White Shark Capital of the World! Or is it? The South African Cage Diving Industry’s roots started in Gansbaai in the late 1980s. The 1990s saw up to 19 great white sharks on a single dive. The sharks were bold and it’s easy to see how Gansbaai became known as the Great White Shark Capital with 120 000 tourists flocking each year to see the sharks.
The next 17 years saw shark cage diving tourism in Gansbaai grow substantially with 9 different operators. The number of shark trips increased, as did the size of the boats and their passenger capacity.
When you are dealing with wild animals, there are many factors that influence their movements.
The decline of the great white sightings along the South African coastline started in False Bay. Only permitted to operate at Seal Island and surrounds, False Bay’s great white sharks first moved inshore before leaving the area. Currently, False Bay no longer sees great whites at all.
A similar event occurred in Gansbaai. In fact, the shark cage diving boats have not worked around shark alley (Dyer Island and Geyser Rock) in about 5 years. Gansbaai community is fortunate in that members are permitted to work inshore and have followed the sharks. This time last year, Gansbaai had seen no great whites until just a few weeks ago. The question begs, will Gansbaai’s great white situation follow False Bay’s lack of great white sightings?
Up until a few weeks ago, Mossel Bay was the place to be, with consistent sightings of great whites all year round, with much more predictability than any other great white location in South Africa. Enter the shark-killing-orca and within 24 hours, the great whites had left the area.
What are the factors that influence the shark’s movement?
As with any marine wildlife, no one truly understands their behavior, however there are many theories. No doubt, as with any animal that is a hunter, food would be the major influencing factor. In South Africa, the government has issued permits to the Demersal Longlining fishing industry to fish smaller species of shark which are the great white’s main source of food. With no regulation, these smaller sharks have been over-fished, and their populations have crashed. The shark-killing orca is also responsible for sharks’ movements as can be seen when predation has taken place on a great white, the sharks leave the area almost immediately. This movement is not permanent, and the sharks tend to return after a short period of weeks or months. When a company under the guise of research traveled to South Africa to tag the great whites, the sharks were hauled onto a platform for 20 minutes whilst they poked, prodded, and tagged. Most interestingly, the great whites left the areas they were inhabiting almost immediately and returned weeks later once the area was safe.
What is clear is any threat to their survival is acted upon quickly. Their ancestry dates back more than 400 million years, and they are one of evolution’s greatest success stories. These animals are uniquely adapted to their ocean environment, ensuring their survival.
Watch: South Coast fisherman wrestles 180kg shark during sardine run
