Eyeball to eyeball with a great white shark
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17 Jun, 2007
One-on-one interaction with a great white shark in its natural habitat makes for breathtaking viewing.
After yesterday's experience filming two great whites in Gansbaai off the coast of South Africa’s Western Cape province, I was hankering for some more great white interaction and this morning made straight for Dyer Island, a small, rocky outcrop about 11 km (11 mi) out to sea. The sea was beautifully calm and you can see from a photograph that I snapped just before jumping overboard that the conditions were near perfect.
It wasn't long before a nice 3,5 m (11,5 ft) long male shark appeared from the cold Atlantic water.
The arrival of this shark and the subsequent footage we captured of it represents to me what Earth-Touch is all about: a great white, hunting in its own domain, today. There is nothing set up or pre-fabricated about this.
This shark spent about 20 minutes or so with me and was far bolder than the female that I filmed yesterday. (Great white females, coincidentally, tend to be larger than males.) You can see this difference in attitude by the way the animal came straight at me.
This is quite disconcerting, as I always wonder which way they're going to turn - if ever.
On one occasion the shark’s eye was about 10 cm (4 inches) from the glass of my wide lens. This does make for impressive visuals, and I guess this is the sort of scrutiny that potential prey is subjected to before the taste test is initiated!
Another interesting thing is that these sharks often use the sun as ‘cover’ when investigating something. They tend to swim close to the surface while scrutinising something (such as a diver). The bright light coming from the surface obscures them, probably adding to the stealth factor when hunting.
After experiencing the privilege of interacting with a great white once again, I surfaced to find that the ocean had turned white from a gale-force northwester, and we had to run for the cover of Kleinbaai Harbour before the swell got too big for our 10 m (33 ft) boat.
More about this clip
Country: South Africa
Habitat: Marine coastline, Dyer Island
Location: Dyer Island, Gansbaai, Western Cape
Tags: Great white shark, Shark, Fish, Vertebrates, Dyer Island, Gansbaai, Western Cape, South Africa, Africa, Marine coastline
Comments
subscribe to commentsnatalwildlife
said on 20 Feb, 2008
Remarkable footage., can't wait for some more....
tara
said on 28 Aug, 2007
Thanks so much for your interesting reply.
I just love this clip. I return to it again and again, and show it whenever I want to show someone Earth-Touch for the first time.
Please give us some more great white footage soon?
riaanp
said on 08 Aug, 2007
Thanks for that explanation Andy! Must have been a scary experience... well, for the rest of us, at least, it would have been.
battybrian
said on 08 Jul, 2007
This is AC (logged on as Batty Brian temporarily). In response to Tara's queries, I think the reason there is such a high concentration of sharks is due to the presence of all the seals, their favourite food. There is a seal breeding colony on a tiny island just off the shore. The sharks trawl the channel between the island and the mainland looking for any slow, unsuspecting or inexperienced young seals. It is quite interesting that small seals are initially not very strong swimmers. They need to practice for a while. This makes them easy targets.
The way to distinguish between male and female sharks (apart from size) is the presence of claspers behind the pelvic fin. The males have claspers, the females don't.
katet
said on 04 Jul, 2007
tara
said on 02 Jul, 2007
Hi,
I read on the internet somewhere that the Gansbaai area had the greatest concentration of great white sharks in the world - in one study apparently someone saw more than 30 individuals here in 1 day! Is this true? Why are there so many great whites here?
Also, how do you tell the difference between males and females. You say the females are bigger - but how do you know what you're looking at isn't just a smale female/big male for eg? Are there any other distinguishing characterisitics?
I also read that there is a lot of great white tagging going on here, and that great whites had been tracked swimming from SA to Australia - and back - in about 7-9 months. Do you know anything more about their movements?
Thanks for the cool footage. My 5-year-old son wants to meet the person who filmed this footage - he is his new hero!
