An email from Jeff Kurr

Hi Abraham,

I just read your student's blogs- terrific!  I'm so happy that the children have taken an interest in our documentaries about the famous flying fish from False Bay, "Air Jaws".

I first discovered Air Jaws back in 2000.  Chris Fallows, a naturalist and photographer working in False Bay, South Africa contacted me and said he had photos of great white sharks breaching from the water to hunt seals.  I remember well the first time I saw the photos of 4 and 5 meter sharks fully out of the water, snatching seals in mid-air!  I knew this would make an incredible documentary.

I set out with a shark biologist to South Africa in June of 2000.  We spent 70 days at sea, filming the 20-30 great white sharks that surround Seal Island.  Each morning, we'd see some of the 65,000 cape fur seals depart the island in small groups, bracing for an attack from below.  We discovered that the sharks would swim along the bottom, following the seals on the surface.  At some point, the sharks would single out a particular seal that perhaps looked most vulnerable, and then launch an attack.

Seals are very difficult to catch.  We think the sharks in False Bay have developed this "aerial" style of hunting to insure their success in capturing a seal... A surprise attack from below is very difficult for the seals to detect.  Amazingly, we'd see the seals jumping, twisting and diving to avoid the sharks at the very last second.  In fact, 50% of the time the seals would escape the initial attack, especially if the shark missed on its first try.  

It's one of the most incredible scenes in the natural world to see the shark and seal doing this deadly dance together.  The shark hoping to feed; the seal hoping to escape and live another day.  

All in all, I've made five Air Jaws films for the Discovery Channel.

Air Jaws in 2001.

Air Jaws 2 in 2002.

Ultimate Air Jaws in 2010.

Air Jaws Apocalypse in 2012.

Air Jaws: Fin of Fury in 2014.

and currently I'm working on 2 other Air Jaws programs for 2016.

I'm really happy to know that the children, like you have taken an interest in Air Jaws, the incredible sharks of South Africa.  Working with these animals has been the highlight of my career and I feel both blessed and fortunate to have spent so much time in the company of these predators.

Best "Fishes"

Jeff

An Email from Chris and Monique Fallows

Hi Abraham and Pupils!

Wow, what a fantastic email to receive and know that the news of our very special Great white sharks are not only reaching you in New Zealand but are also motivating you all to write some great blogs on a very special animal.

We know that we are extremely privileged to be able to work with sharks on a daily basis and not only do we make the most of every moment with them, but we love to share our experiences with people who do not have the same opportunities that we do.

Let us start by saying that we have already seen Colossus once this year, on 21 May. He is now around 4 meters in length, a very big shark indeed! And he is looking in great condition.

Last year we saw him twice in July, both on hunting events.

When the sharks are hunting they do come across as being aggressive as they have to hunt very difficult prey to catch, the seals are extremely agile and fast in the water. You may find it interesting that when we see the sharks around the boat they are usually very calm and curious animals so it is great to get a different perspective on them once they slowdown from hunting and conserve energy. There are many different sides to the Great white sharks and working with them allows us to get to know them intimately.

Chris has had a passion for wildlife since he was a child. He never had any doubt that he would one day work with animals and by following his heart and passion his path led him to Great white sharks. It’s a great lesson for all of you out there, once you find you passion, no matter what it is, follow your heart and you can accomplish great things.

We wish you all the best of luck, keep writing on subjects that interest you and we hope that you will one day get to see a great white shark!

Best wishes

Chris & Monique

PS>

You can follow us on the below.

http://www.apexpredators.com/blog

https://www.facebook.com/ApexSharks

Colossus by Sam R

COLOSSUS THE FLYING SHARK

Colossus is the king of all Great white sharks in the world because he is bigger, stronger and fiercer than all of the other great white sharks in the world.

There is about 50 great white sharks feeding on cape fur seals off Seal Island but none of the sharks are as big as Colossus; he is about 15 feet long (4.572m) and weighs about 3000 pounds (1360.78kg). He lives at Seal Island off False Bay, Cape Town, South Africa with many other sharks smaller than him. He breaches out of the water to catch his prey in the ‘ring of death’ which is usually cape fur seals.

Colossus was first discovered around Seal Island in 2011 and since then he has become the king of the Seal Island waters. Jeff Kurr and Chris Fallows are researching Colossus, he has even destroyed their underwater cameras while filming him. For about two years Colossus went missing from Seal Island so Jeff Kurr and Chris Fallows went searching all over the world for him. They went to Australia and Stewart Island, New Zealand to search but they didn’t find him. In New Zealand, Chris Fallows went down 40 feet in W.A.S.P (Water Armor Shark Protection) to see if Colossus was there but they said there were 18 foot sharks bigger than Colossus that were banging against W.A.S.P. After two long years away from Seal Island Colossus returned in 2014 to the scientists relief and was back hunting for seals around Seal Island.

Colossus usually hunts in the ring of death. The ring of death is a ring around the island that expands 400 yards (365.76m) around. Colossus would be waiting further out from the shore because he is a bigger shark, the seals usually hop into the water at Sector Four of the island which is the bottom tip of the island. When Colossus breaches out of the water he hits the seal with 29 G’S at about 25 miles per hour which is like getting hit by a freight train, so thats why hardly no seals survive the attacks but occasionally some seals survive because they have a thick layer of blubber protecting them from the cold and shark attacks.

The filmmaker Jeff Kurr has tried many things to get the perfect picture of Colossus, he has tried a robo seal with many cameras connected to it but that got destroyed by Colossus in one bite. They have also tried some seal dummies which got destroyed too. And once Jeff Kurr built a seal sled made out of metal and he laid on it at the surface of the water to capture a seal attack right in front of him.

Colossus is one of the biggest Great White Sharks in the world and is continuing to dominate Seal Island, Cape Town, South Africa. The last time Jeff Kurr and Chris Fallows saw Colossus was May 2015 around Seal Island.

Written by Sam Rochford

Colossus The Giant Flying Shark by Victor P

Colossus The Giant Flying Shark

Colossus the mighty, magnificent, massive great white shark.

When Colossus is on the loose in the waters of ‘Seal Island,’ seals go insane and not only them, even smaller great whites despair of taking the first engaging strike to their prey, and if they don’t Colossus will execute any great white shark that rebels against him. Colossus eats whatever he wants even his own kind if they don’t give way to him. He has his own personality and not only him, every great white has a personality.

Colossus discovered a new special ability that great white sharks from Seal Island perform. The sharks can swim deep underwater to camouflage themselves while stalking their prey, and breach above the water to catch the cape fur seal in it’s menacing mouth. Colossus used this treacherous technique countless times. Great white sharks have numerous hunting strategies and there is a rare attack called tail whip that they use while hunting intruders which shows dominance.

Shark experts wanted to know more about Colossus and they wanted something to take a clear picture of him while preventing themselves from getting eaten or hurt. So the experts made a robotic seal so they don’t have to risk any divers getting hurt. They put cameras on the robo seal to get a clip of what is happening underwater. After they threw the robo seal in the ocean sharks started swimming around the robo seal tail whipping it. After minutes of tail whipping Colossus charged unrelentingly from below the ocean and crunched the robo seal leaving it completely obliterated in one bite and left the experts astonished. Great white sharks are powerful and getting hit by a great white is like getting hit by a small car and leaving you deformed. Its charging speed is 1000km per hour! The monster’s G-Force/Impact power is 3000 pounds or 29Gs!

Colossus has vanished from Seal Island and he has gone off without a warning. Shark experts have found out that the sharks have gone 50 miles from to the east to another hunting ground. The name of that place is named ‘Shark Reef.’ The shark experts know that if they have moved away from Seal Island there must have been another better food resource. They have discovered that ‘smooth hound sharks’ live there and a great white shark’s favourite food, is a succulent smooth hound shark.

The experts suspect that Colossus is very curious about them because he has been destroying their gadgets and showing-off to them. He has been keeping two eyes on what the researchers are up to and is very suspicious.

Colossus is not just a killing machine he has his own personality and is intelligent. He has the skills and the size to prove he can be dominant, but he leaves the scientists with a lot of questions. Were the researches studying him? Or was Colossus studying them?

By Victor P

Colossus by Carmen R

Colossus

By Carmen R.

By far one of the most aggressive and stealthiest of the Great White Sharks ever sighted at Seal Island. However after Jeff Kurr, the man behind the camera of Discovery Channel’s ‘AIR JAWS’ franchise, had risked his life to capture a breathtaking image of Colossus breaching in the ‘Ring Of Death’, this spectacular Great White Shark suddenly disappeared.

Colossus was first discovered in 2011, when the team was filming for ‘AIR JAWS APOCALYPSE’ and they decided to create an episode directed on him. He was distinguished for the parasites also known as ‘shark lice’ and as each shark has a unique dorsal fin -which is like our fingerprints- it was found that Colossus has a deformed dorsal fin, almost like a large of his dorsal fin had a kink removed. At 4,000 pound and estimated at 14ft-15ft, Colossus was not easy to find, however at almost every experiment or equipment they launched to catch a glimpse of Colossus, he managed to show up, before he disappeared in 2013.

Because Colossus was a newcomer, he is therefore believed to have watched and learned from the other Great Whites which patrol and breach in Seal Island’s 15c degree waters 5.7kms off the northern beaches of False Bay, near Cape Town, South Africa. The dense population of the seals at certain times of the year, attract the seal’s main predator, the Great White Shark and ‘Ring Of Death’ surrounds the island as this is where attacks on seals most often occur.

The team who dared to track this deadly predator includes shark biologists Chris Fallows and Alison Towner, as well as Jeff Kurr, a director and producer of shark documentaries. This team of experts used a variety of methods in finding Colossus with the uses of a ‘WASP’, a ‘Parthenope’, a ‘Robo Seal’ and a ‘Seal Sled’. The ‘WASP’, an abbreviation for Water Amour Shark Protection, is a shark cage capable of holding one diver, with the design of 6-foot tall that was cut from 16.4 feet of aluminum alloy tube and includes a transparent window that surrounds the aluminum armor to create the illusion that the diver is floating unprotected.  WASP allowed the filmmakers to observe an unusual white shark behavior in New Zealand, which was described by Jeff Kurr:

"What we didn't know is that the sharks would actually treat WASP like sort of a bowling pin, trying to knock it over," recalled Jeff. "There was an 18-foot shark down there with Chris [Fallows] that actually knocked him flat, and the other sharks all kind of came and joined in for the fun."

Another tool they used during the search of Colossus, was ‘Parthenope’, a 14-foot female shark decoy which can be ridden on and adjusted for swimming on the surface, in order to lure Colossus (though he failed to show up) from the ocean’s depths to the surface, created by local shark expert, Dickie Chivell. ‘Robo Seal’  is a robotic structure shaped as its name suggests a seal. ‘Robo Seal’ was used to record the 29 gs, similar to the impact of a car crash and when Colossus breached for it, the destruction he caused was described as absolutely obliterated. Lastly ‘Seal Sled’ was deployed with a decoy seal towed 15ft behind it enabling the team to capture Colossus breach from all angles, with an incredible background.

Colossus by Elizabeth

General statement

Colossus is a 13-14 foot Great White with an adventurous personality. This particular shark was a newcomer to Seal Island in 2011 and stayed there for 2 winters scaring other sharks and seals.

Colossus Breaching

Colossus was present around Seal Island for two weeks before his first breach, scientists believe that Colossus learnt to breach from seeing other Sharks breach first. The last time the scientists saw Colossus is when they were doing a test with the Seal Sled.

Behavior

Colossus is a very dominant shark and scares other sharks and seals, he rules the feeding grounds and his body language says to other smaller sharks that he is bigger and go away or risk being attacked. All the other sharks are scared of him because of his size and behavior.

Diet

Colossus has been Known to attack many things like Robo Seal to decoys, but we know one thing for sure, once Colossus wants something he will get it. Colossus’s main food source is the cape fur seals at seal island and sometimes Colossus will attack the penguins or birds. Colossus can eat up to 35-40 pounds a mouthful.

Size

Colossus is a 13-14 foot shark and is the biggest in Seal Island, scientists first noticed him because of his size and his ability to breach to amazing heights. Most sharks are scared of him because of his size. Colossus's size is also an advantage when breaching because it is easier to get a smaller object like a seal.

Conclusion

Colossus is now found in various places and then goes missing again, just proving his adventurous personality!

Air Jaws by Alex

Air jaws are a type of shark that live around South Africa and are one of the most dangerous sharks in the world. They can breach to amazing heights. They strike their prey with a powerful, devouring munch. These are Seal Island’s Air Jaws.

The great white sharks that breach the water hunt around Seal Island located in False Bay, Cape Town, South Africa. Seal Island is a rocky environment for young seal pups. Sixty thousand seals and African penguins inhabit the island.

Before seals get to the island they enter what is called “The Ring of Death.” They go in groups of 8 to 12 when they enter and leave the island. Seals that go alone are almost asking to be eaten.

To attack, the great white sharks can breach up to 2 metres in the air. If the shark misses its prey there is a long chase ahead. The seals fight back by jumping in the air and doing flips and turns to get away from these vicious creatures. The clearer the water the deeper they go for their prey.

The social order of sharks in the “Ring of Death” is that larger sharks have greater priority compared to smaller sharks when it comes to feasting on prey. They also have a shoot first and ask questions later strategy.

These dangerous sharks of South Africa cause fear for not just us humans, but imagine how the wildlife in the sea feel having to face these terrifying creatures.

By Alex

Air Jaws by Grace H

Air Jaws

By Grace H

General statement: These magnificent great white sharks are vicious, aggressive and ferocious hunters and scavengers, they breach to the amazing height of 2 massive metres from the murky waters that surround the location, Seal Island. Even though they have very little interest in humans, they still strike us with fear. They are the devouring “Air Jaws” of South Africa.

Diet: “Air Jaws” would devour anything in their sight, even if the prey is a challenging target. They are very determined to have their lunch, but if they miss out, they will blow their top and then their aggression levels will increase massively. They most commonly eat cape fur seals and african penguins. Competition excites the sharks.When a shark is larger than others, it has a bigger priority in feasting time. Air jaws adapt and adjust well to the seals’ supple skills. The more attacks a seal survives, the more intelligent the seal becomes.

Habitat: These violent hunters like to scavenge in the area of the Ring Of Death. The Ring Of Death is located 400 yards away from Seal Island in False Bay, near Cape Town. False Bay is the home to many cape fur seals and african penguins. There are dozens of great white sharks that patrol the outer waters of Seal Island. “Air jaws” prefer to hunt in the Ring of Death zone. They also favour water that has the temperature of 55 degrees. Seals have to cross the Ring of Death to enter and exit. Seals would leave the island in groups of 8-12, but return in much smaller groups. Seals take one breath before cautiously ducking underneath the water because the Ring Of Death is coming near.

Attacking/Behaviour: As the “air jaws” are surrounding the island, they have an attacking strategy that repeats like an endless eating pattern. In shallow waters they attack in a parallel direction towards their prey and when they’re in mid/deep murky waters they attack vertically.  When they are hunting in clear water, they dive deeper into the water to become camouflaged to their prey. “Air jaws” begin scavenging at dawn. When an uninvited visitor appears in their sight, their instinct to attack instantly switches on. They were built for speed, it is vital when they’re attacking. Sharks can travel to nearly 20 miles per hour. Sharks have up to 5-6  breaches everyday ,they breach from the water and flip ridiculously to capture its prey. Air jaws follow the rule of shoot first, ask questions later. After a shark attacks it would leave and return later to finish off its feast. Sharks are very careful around objects that are new or suspicious, like various forms of water transport.

Conclusion: The “air jaws” strike when least expected and chew with aggression and power. These sharks will consume anything that’s breathing within their reach. They can destroy whatever crosses their path within seconds. These destructive animals are not all teeth and violence, they have lives that include intelligence and respect. These are False Bay’s “Air Jaws”.

Air Jaws by Aniela

Great white sharks are the most agile, aggressive, vicious,  scavengers in the world.  They breach to catch unfortunate prey inside the ring of death.  They are the ferocious Air Jaws.

Habitat - South Africa, dozens patrol the seas at Seal island. Seal island has the densest population of sharks.

Diet - These sharks will devour dozens of seals around Seal island as well as other animals such as whales.

Breaching - 400 yards out from the island is the 'ring of death' were the seals mainly get hunted. The Sharks prefer to hunt in this ring because there is more chance for a successful. They camouflage themselves in deep murky waters then launch out of the water causing an attack or miss, if the seal sees it coming. The trajectory of attack is parallel towards its prey when in shallow water and vertical when in deep.

Behaviour - A touch to the shark's snout will stop it cold. They show signs of aggression and have strange behaviour. They are very cautious around things they don't understand such as boats. They are initially attracted to them until quickly backing away. They develop a change of behaviour when they are full.

Humans are not a threat to Great White Sharks, many scientists study these incredible animals at Seal Island. Scientists can not interfere but they have been observing these magnificent sharks and constructing experiments to find more about how these sharks behave. They insert a tag inside the sharks to track interaction, size etc but scientists are still learning how these fascinating sharks breach. Great Whites are not just aggressive scavengers, their intelligence, interactions with other sharks and behaviour is outstanding.  

Air Sharks by Niamh

Air Sharks

By Niamh S

The Great White Shark is a remarkable predator of the sea. It has a keen sense of smell and stealth to hunt a variety of prey in the deep ocean. It has once again shown its adaptability by its aerial predation in the waters of False Bay.

These Great White Sharks tend to swim around seal island 400 meters out in the ring of death which is by Cape Town in South Africa.Great white sharks have a attack before questioning strategy so they don’t only feed on seals, but dead whale and sea birds.

They attack in different types trajectory such as a shallow attack ,midwater attack and deep attack. With three different attacks these sharks make it harder for the prey to get escape so they never know what hit them. But in some cases the seal (or prey) escape or the sharks miss but it’s most likely for the prey to escape.

Cape Fur Seal's main predator is Great white sharks so the seals do whatever they can to not become lunch. There are about 60,000 cape fur seals living on Seal Island. Swimming out in groups of 8-12 and returning in groups of two. The seals can swim freely in front of the island where there is turbulence just before they leave to get their feed. The sharks can’t go in that area where there is turbulence. Just before the seals return to the island they take one last breath before swimming to the bottom of the turbulent area.

Sharks are remarkable sea creatures breaching into the air, gliding around in the water and finding different ways of attacking prey.

These extraordinary creatures are remarkably manoeuvrable and do all these amazing things and most likely more!

Character Day

As part of our 2015 Written Language focus, we all came to school dressed as a newly created character as a prompt for descriptive writing. Everybody loved letting their imaginations run wild as they came up with some amazing characters.  Buddy classes worked together to help each other at the planning stage and some fantastic character descriptions have been the result.  Everybody looked awesome, it was the most enjoyable day.

The Moon by Carmen and Victor

Asteroids, Comets and Meteorites by Nathan and Liam W

Galaxies by Katia and James A

Air Jaws by Liam W

AIR JAWS

Air Jaws is a Great White Shark that breaches for its prey and can jump up to two metres high. Its name came from the movie ‘Jaws’, but due to its jumping ability, it is called ‘Air Jaws.’

Air Jaws or the Great White Shark are mainly breaching in the waters around Seal Island near Cape Town, South Africa. Seal Island is home to 60,000 seals and penguins, with rough terrain, shallow water and small rockpools. It is a great place to play and have fun for seal pups... until Air Jaws comes.

Air Jaws is a shark that has an attack first ask questions later personality, because of this, Air Jaws not only attacks seals, but is known to attack the African penguin. Its body is built for speed so when it breaches for its prey in a vertical rush to the surface, IT CAN JUMP! Usually the deeper the water, the bigger the jump. They also swim deep in water for camouflage. There is a ring of death which is where most of the shark attacks occur.

Since an adult Great White Shark is 15-17 feet {4.6-5.2metres},long and can take in with one large bite up to 30-40 pounds {13.7-18.2kg}. Surprisingly these big monsters aren’t first in first serve, they eat in sizes. Biggest to smallest.

Air Jaws is a great white shark that breaches in the waters by South Africa. The sharks can grow up to 15-17 feet long.

Air Jaws by Carmen

Air Jaws

The best place in the world to witness the spectacular Great White Shark breaching is 30km south of Cape Town at Seal Island in False Bay. Scientists have acknowledged that the breaching behaviour of the Great White Shark occurs there more frequently than anywhere along the South African coastline.

It’s difficult to imagine a 1 tonne animal, launching itself out of the waters that surround Seal Island while hunting, however the Great White Shark does just this. This spectacular behaviour is called breaching as Great White sharks use this strategy to catch fast moving prey, such as seals.

The Great White Shark begins its hunting at dawn. They will swim near the bottom of the murky waters and the clearer the water, the deeper they will swim. Once they spot its prey, it is  a full out vertical rush to the surface, the Great White often is able to reach twenty miles per hour, and break through the water grabbing its prey. This act is a ‘shoot first ask questions later’ performance and is often targeted to attack a seal, however sometimes long chases of up to 3-4 minutes can occur due to the seal noticing the shark and maneuvering away or by chance the shark simply misses. . During these long chases the Great White Shark will often jump out head over tail with great agility for its size.

Great White Sharks breach most commonly in the habitat of Seal Island. The island is a small land mass located 5.7 kms off the northern beaches of False Bay, near Cape Town, in South Africa. Seal Island is so named, because of the great number of Cape Fur Seals which  occupy it. It is 5 acres in area and home to at least 64,000 cape fur seals. It is also home to seabirds and is likely that non-marine species, fly there to breed as well. The dense population of the seals at certain times of the year, attract the seal’s main predator, the Great White Sharks. A ‘Ring Of Death’ surrounds the island as this is where attacks on seals most often occur, however the seals have adapted a smarter way to cross through the steep dropoff. As the seals return they take one breath then plunge the murky 15c degree water and swim swiftly towards the island and only breathe again once safely on the island.

To conclude, 30km south of Cape Town at Seal Island in False Bay, is the greatest place to witness the spectacular hunting ability of the Great White Shark as they continue to adapt to their habitat. It is known as breaching. The phenomenon of a 1 tonne animal swimming at the murky bottom depths then rushing to the surface in a full out vertical rush to the surface, catching its prey as it leaps from the water.

Science: by Grace

Science: George and Kiara

Reading Activities - Carmen

Air Jaws by Hannah

Air Jaws

By Hannah Shallcrass

Vicious great white sharks hunt cape fur seals in waters around Seal Island in Cape Town, South Africa. Great whites can breach up to 2 metres out of the water. This is the only place where they breach.

False Bay, Cape Town, South Africa is where Seal Island is the home to 60,000 cape fur seals and South African penguins. Great whites also live around Seal Island but they hunt 400 yards out of the island which is known as the “ring of death”. The “ring of death” is where great whites surround the island awaiting the prey.

An “air jaws” shark mainly feeds on food around Seal Island. These sharks will feed on dozens of seals, penguins, and dead sea birds. They will also feed on other food such as whales devouring the meat at 35-40 pounds or more per bite.

An “air jaws” shark is highly manoeuvrable for how big it is. The shark would swim in the murky water of the ocean. A larger shark has priority so when a smaller shark is going to attack the larger shark can take over. When a seal or any other prey comes along the shark would swim at an angle of either parallel, and vertical or any other trajectory depending on where it is. The shark would swim at full speed toward the prey and breech. The shark is not always successful, when it is not it will go back and may have another attempt.

The seals will leave Seal Island in larger groups and will come back in smaller groups. Some lucky seals are well adapted to the habitat and know how things work around Seal Island. When the sharks have a feeding frenzy they become intoxicated after 2 hours of non-stop feeding. Some seals make fearless runs through the ring of death to make an escape. As the seasons change from winter to spring the air jaws abandon the island.

Air Jaws well known as great whites are amazing creatures as they have adapted to their environment and will continue to do so.

Air Jaws by Jamie H

Air Jaws

Air jaws is one of the most deadliest sharks in the world. The great white shark breaches to kill its prey, and has therefore been nicknamed ‘Air jaws’.

Habitat: The great white shark hunts off the coast of South Africa near Cape Town in False Bay, there is an island named ‘Seal Island’ due to the 60 thousand cape fur seals living there. This makes it a perfect hunting spot for the great white sharks.

Diet: The great white shark mainly eats seals, however has also eaten whales and other sea creatures. The great white shark has occasionally attacked the African penguin, yet it did not consume the bird.

Hunting: The great white shark mainly hunts in the 'Ring of Death.' The 'ring of death' is a circle around Seal Island and that’s where the seals mostly get killed. The ring of death is where the great white sharks prefer to hunt.

By Jamie Hay

Air Jaws by Katia

INFORMATION REPORT
• A report gives information about an object, animal, person or place
• Use present tense
• Can include a labelled diagram and caption

 Title: Air Jaws

 Aggressive and vicious are two words to describe the magnificent sharks of South Africa. These incredible great whites have the amazing ability to breach two metres into the air. This is the only place where these sharks breach. Being the world’s most dangerous shark, this shark has more speed and agility than any other.

 The waters around Seal Island in False bay, Cape town is a home to many of these Great White sharks, as well as being the home to 60,000 cape fur seals and African penguins. The Air Jaws tend to patrol the island from around 400 yards out in the ‘Ring of Death,’ it’s preferable hunting place.

The great whites diet consists mainly of Cape fur seals but may occasionally go to a dead whale or water birds as a food source. The sharks can eat up to 35-45 pounds of whale flesh in one bite. When the water begins to warm the great whites undergo diet changes.

 Over a dozen attacks take place every day. The sharks can travel up to 20 miles per hour while approaching their prey. If a shark misses a seal a long chase is often ahead, the sharks may even flip head over tail while trying to catch it’s prey. These sharks are able to adapt to the seals speed and agility. The sharks restless hunting begins at dawn. They have many different attack styles including shallow/parallel attacks, mid attacks and vertical attacks (coming from the deep at full speed.) Competition excites the predators and so the bigger the shark the bigger it’s priority at meal time. These sharks live by the rules of ‘shoot first, ask questions later,’ they attack with aggression and are also scavengers. In murky water sharks can sometimes almost camouflage but the clearer the water the deeper the shark will go to catch it’s prey.

 As the sharks spend almost all of their time at the ring of death the seals are in great danger when passing through, whether they are leaving or returning to the island. Before venturing off seals sometimes meet at the bottom near the edge of the ring of death also known as ‘the launching pad’ to swim or play in groups of 8-12. The seals often leave the island in large groups but return in much smaller ones. The seals take one last breath before diving to the bottom of the ring of death to get to the island to provide the best safety. The seals that have passed through the ring of death before have a better chance of surviving. If they need to the seals may use close by objects such as boats for protection.

 These sharks have adapted well to the waters around Seal Island and are continuing to do so. While scientists are busy trying to figure out what it is about the waters that causes the magnificent creatures to breach above the surface.

 By Katia B