Great White Shark Facts

The Flying Great white sharks of Seal Island are now legendary and have been the subject of over 35 documentaries since we started working with them in 1995.

The most famous of these must be Air Jaws 1 & 2 although they have been on BBC, National Geographic and many other channels.

Nowhere else on earth can such spectacular hunting behaviour be seen and on some days over 40 natural predatory events have been witnessed.

Each year from May onwards the white shark return to seal island to feed on young Cape fur seals which now head offshore on their own to fend for themselves.

The area around seal island has steep drop offs and it is in this area that the white shark patrol stalking the young seals as they leave the safety of the island and shallow areas. With a rapid surface rush these sharks ambush the seals on the surface and in about 48% of all interactions the sharks are successful.

For detailed information on great white shark researched facts.

The great white sharks we see at Seal Island average around 3,5m (11ft) however sharks in excess of 20ft have been seen on rare occasions. Small sharks of less than 2m (7ft) are also occasionally sighted.

In order for the large sharks to breach the surface of the water it has been calculated that they must be swimming at around 25mph although we are confident they can swim a lot faster than this if need be.

Each year we eagerly anticipate the return of many of our old favourites and some sharks have been seen over 60 times over the last decade. Each white shark has it’s own unique personality and learning what each shark will do under a given circumstance is one of the most fascinating aspects of working with them.

During the entire time we have worked with white sharks we have never felt threatened by them or have ever had one act openly aggressively towards us.

Since we started at Seal Island we have noticed that around September each year, when the summer winds start to blow, the white sharks suddenly vacate the area and generally tend to move inshore appearing to prefer to feed on the ever dwindling smaller shark and fish species also occurring in False Bay.

Additional facts provided by BBC Planet on Great White Sharks