WELCOME BACK: Great white shark spotted in False Bay after eight-year absence

A sub-adult great white shark has been sighted just north of Seal Island in False Bay by clients and crew of African Shark Eco-Charters, a company that runs licensed shark-diving excursions from Simon’s Town.

“Although there have been some anecdotal reports of great white sightings from time to time, they have literally vanished and this is the first time we have seen them in eight years. So it really was a  big surprise when our crew spotted a young shark this morning,” said Rob Lawrence, whose company operates cage diving and tours to spot bronze whaler (copper) sharks.

“We were super-excited – but it’s too early to say that its back to normal.”  

African Shark Eco-Charters crew members Katie Phillipps, Poenas Jacobs, Eddie Kasanhayi and Tshawe Cheminais are heard reacting with excitement as a young great white shark latches on to bait north of Seal Island on September 23. Though the bait is tied to a line, it does not contain a hook and can be released by the shark. (Video clip: African Shark Eco-Charters)

Veteran naturalist and Simon’s Town whale-watching tour operator Dave Hurwitz said: “I can tell you that there was a lot of excitement today when people heard that a Great White had been spotted here after so long. It was a bit like the second coming.”

“We don’t know if the bigger adults will also be coming back here, but that is certainly the hope for several of the shark-diving companies that would previously see them on a regular basis hunting for seals, mainly in the summer months.”

Hurwitz said the exact reasons for the disappearance from False Bay of these highly mobile animals remained unclear, but was generally attributed to a combination of reasons including specialist predation by killer whales as well as the impacts of the local fishing industry and shark-net/bather-protection captures off the KwaZulu-Natal coast.

Two killer whales in particular (named Port and Starboard owing to their distinctively floppy dorsal fins) have been implicated in deliberately targeting great whites to feed off their fat-rich livers.

Their role in the killings was later confirmed in a research report, co-authored by SanParks marine biologist Dr Alison Kock.

Kock and fellow biologist Alison Towner reported that killer whales were driving great white sharks from their traditional aggregation sites off the Western Cape.

They reported the first “highly unusual events” happening between February and June 2017 in Gansbaai, where five white shark carcasses were discovered on beaches, with distinct wounds and missing livers.

“The mysterious shark deaths were due to two killer whales, specifically two known shark-hunting specialists, Port and Starboard. Their presence in the area coincided each time with the appearance of the deceased sharks, providing clear evidence of their involvement,” Kock and Towner reported.

White shark sightings at the Gansbaai aggregation site significantly declined, and the absence of white sharks increased after each predation event, eventually resulting in complete abandonment of the site for two-and-a-half years.

They also found that presence of the killer whales triggered an immediate flight response and prolonged absence from the area.  The absence of white sharks, in turn, created a void that another predator, the bronze whaler shark, filled.

Drone and helicopter footage later revealed the unique behaviour of the killers.

“One killer whale held a white shark in a semi-inverted position, potentially inducing a motionless state known as tonic immobility. The killer whales appeared to use a specialised foraging tactic, focusing on the energy-rich liver of the sharks while leaving the rest of the carcass behind,” Kock and Towner wrote.

There was also a significant similar change in the behaviour of white sharks in Mossel Bay.

“The implications of killer whale predation on white sharks are far-reaching. The South African white shark population, already small and facing numerous human-induced threats, experienced further displacement from their natural aggregation sites due to the presence of the shark-hunting killer whales.”

Back in Simon’s Town, crew members of African Shark Eco-Charters are preparing for a second trip to Seal Island on Thursday, 24 September.

MD Karen Lawrence emphasised that while they were very excited to have spotted a young white shark after an absence of eight years it did not mean that they were “back” for good. DM