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!