An Unusual Predation at Seal Island

Seal Island, False Bay is home to the most intense Natural Predatory behaviour between Great White Sharks and Cape fur seals. Since 1996 Chris & our team have collected various data points from each predatory event. These events now number close to 7,500 and the overall success rate for the shark is just under 50%, extremely high compared to other predators.

SHARK WEEK 2012 PROGRAMME SCHEDULE

It’s just a few days to go for Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week and this year will be the 25^th Anniversary.

Emmy nominated ULTIMATE AIR JAWS and AIR JAWS APOCALYPSE were both facilitated by Apex Shark Expeditions and will be kicking off Shark Week this year.

Also catch Chris Fallows on HOW JAWS CHANGED THE WORLD.

Here's the full lineup:

 

"AIR JAWS APOCALYPSE"

Premieres Sunday, August 12 at 9 p.m. ET

Photographer, author and shark expert Chris Fallows and legendary natural history producer Jeff Kurr embark on a quest to learn more about the great white sharks of Seal Island, South Africa -- and one shark in particular: Colossus is a massive 14-foot great white that dominates all other sharks in the area.

SHARK WEEK'S 25 BEST BITES

Premieres Sunday, August 12 at 10 p.m. ET

In 24 years of Shark Week, Discovery has been able to capture some incredible footage. In celebration of Shark Week's silver anniversary, count down the 25 best bites from the past as filmmakers attempt to get the bird's eye view of a breaching great white, i.e. the shot to top all Shark Week shots.

MYTHBUSTERS' JAWSOME SHARK SPECIAL

Premieres Monday, August 13 at 9 p.m. ET

The MythBusters, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, count down their top 25 shark myths of all time. They also show never-seen-before footage and reveal the No. 1 shark myth that will quite literally blow people away.

SHARKZILLA

Premieres Monday, August 13 at 10 p.m. ET

Discovery is resurrecting the largest shark to ever swim in our oceans: the megalodon, which was 52 feet long, weighed 100,000 pounds and had 250 teeth, each six inches long, set in jaws six feet wide and eight feet tall.

HOW JAWS CHANGED THE WORLD

Premieres Tuesday, August 14 at 9 p.m. ET

The impact "Jaws" had on the oceans and their inhabitants was as big as the audience it found -- and just as surprising. In the aftermath of the film's release, great white sharks were vilified and killed, leading to their near-disappearance from the eastern seaboard. At the same time, public fascination with sharks led to a golden age of shark science and conservation efforts.

SHARK FIGHT

Premieres Tuesday, August 14 at 10 p.m. ET

Amazingly, shark attack victims around the world have devoted their lives to saving their attackers and have become some of the most powerful shark advocates on the planet. Meet the survivors.

GREAT WHITE HIGHWAY

Premieres Wednesday, August 15 at 9 p.m. ET

Dr. Barbara Block, professor of marine sciences at Stanford University, has made it her life's mission to learn all she can about the ocean and its inhabitants -- including the great white shark. She has created a pioneering new way to track the world's biggest great whites in real time.

ADRIFT: 47 DAYS WITH SHARKS

Premieres Thursday, August 16 at 9 p.m. ET

This is the truth story of a routine search mission over the Pacific in WWII gone wrong. An American plane crashed into shark-infested waters, leaving two war heroes to fend for their lives for 47 days at sea.

Tune in to the Discovery Channel this summer to celebrate 25 years of Shark Week, starting on August 12 at 9 p.m. ET on Discovery.

 

JUNE 2012 SHARK BYTES

Dear Shark Lovers

In May I had a lot to share about our False Bay Orca sightings, but very little news of sharks. In this Shark Bytes I am very relieved to say that we seem to be back on track with regards to Great White Sharks at Seal Island.

AIR JAWS APOCALYPSE & HOW JAWS CHANGED THE WORLD

Shark Week 2012 on Discovery Channel will start the annual week long series of shark shows on 12 August 2012 at 9pm Eastern/Pacific in the USA.

You may all remember me writing in April last year regarding how we were on the lookout for Orcas in False Bay. In April 2009 and 2010 we had the very good fortune to see a number of pods in False Bay and as such we were really hoping to pick up on them again. These sightings were of 5 different pods and one pod in particular we had seen 3 times.

Pod A: Mannemerak, Cleopatra, Bonnie and Clyde

At 10h45 we located roughly 500 common dolphin 1NM NW of Seal Island heading in a NW direction. Earlier en route to Seal Island we located a small splinter group of roughly 15 common dolphin 5 NM W of SI. These dolphins were not at all interested in interacting with our vessel and may have been separated from the main school earlier in the day by a previous hunt.

This was our 4th encounter in False Bay with the group of 4 since 2009 (now known to us as A pod) that includes two very noticeable individuals, Mannemerak, the friendly female orca (often bow rides or stern rides) with the bulbous hump on her dorsal surface anterior to her dorsal fin and then a large female (known now as Cleopatra, beautiful but lethal) that has a very falcate fin with a chink missing at the top. Cleopatra seems to be the lead hunter on 7 of the hunts we have seen this group undertake to date. 4 of the 7 have been successful.

April 1991 was a momentous time for great white sharks in South Africa and for that matter all around the world. It was the first time any country had had the foresight to take steps to protect these magnificent predators knowing the importance they played in the eco system.

Since 1991 the popularity of this species as a tourism attraction has ballooned beyond anyone’s imagination and today upwards of 50 000 people come to South Africa to see these animals alive in the wild.

The Great white shark is a mysterious animal and many aspects about them remain unknown. But, with regards to their movement patterns we believe this is largely dictated by prey source and availability. The marine life in False Bay is dictated by the seasons in terms what animals can be found here when.

Apex Shark Expeditions is a company owned by husband and wife team Chris and Monique Fallows, which focuses on providing a broad-based shark and wildlife experience. Going beyond the normal shark cage diving experience, Apex gives you the chance to really get up close and personal with these powerful predators, and offers expedition style packages which are led by some of the world’s foremost shark scientists and field biologists. This means that you have the opportunity to educate yourself about these remarkable creatures which are unfortunately so frequently misunderstood.