Are the White Sharks back for the Christmas Holidays?
Recent evidence suggests that white sharks may be returning to False Bay for the Christmas holidays, with four confirmed sightings of great white sharks in False Bay over the last nine days, reports Spike.
The Shark Spotters at Muizenberg reported that they sighted a white shark on Monday 27th and Wednesday 29th November, while on Saturday 2 December, spear fishermen at Smitswinkel Bay reported seeing a white shark and another white shark sighting was recorded off Roman Rock lighthouse by an experienced water user on the same day.
"At this stage it is unclear whether these are sporadic, one off sightings, or if this may signal the return of white sharks to False Bay in more numbers, said the Shark Spotters in a post this week.
"In either event, we would like to remind water users to exercise caution whenever they enter the ocean and be aware that there may be more white shark activity in the Bay than we have experienced in recent years."
Scientists agree that the absence of the white sharks has a strong causal link to the arrival of the infamous orcas Port and Starboard in False Bay back in 2015. The orcas Port and Staboard, named for their lopsided left- and right-tilting dorsal fins, belonged to a elite of orcas known for a taste in white shark liver.
They predated on several white sharks, and the rest fled the scene, aggragating up the East Coast mostly off the coast between Mossel Bay and Plett. This is the picture built up by scientists after the first discovery of white shark carcasses sans their livers that had been excised with surgical precision. Then dramatic aerial footage showed orcas pack hunting one of the white sharks near Plett, and the proof was in the main course.
In Daily Maverick's Our Burning Planet, Leonie Joubert reports that "number-crunching of shark data spanning half a century confirms the many eyewitness accounts that put these two orcas in the crosshairs as investigators tried to explain the sharks’ sudden disappearance."
The findings confirmed that the southern African population of this globally threatened shark species wasn’t dying out. Through tags and modern research methods such as genetic analysis, researchers know that these sharks are part of a single population of wide-roaming animals that "trek easily between the Cape and the waters off Mozambique and Madagascar".
As marine biologist Dr Alison Kock says, her doctoral research in the early 2010s showed that False Bay was heaving with this apex predator, with some researchers reporting 36 seal predations in a day.
But it would appear that they fled the area when Port and Starboard pulled in, and moved to safer waters. According to Joubert, Algoa Bay saw an eightfold increase in shark activity.
"New shark arrivals at Plettenberg Bay were significant enough that the non-profit Shark Spotters expanded its observation posts beyond False Bay for the first time, opening one at this popular surfing spot to deal with the increased risk of human-shark interactions," she wrote.
And now they are back.
Shark Spotters have issued these precautionary measures:
Do not swim, surf or surf-ski near feeding birds, dolphins or seals
Do not swim, surf or surf-ski near trek-netting, fishing or spear fishing
Do not swim beyond the breakers
Do not swim if you are bleeding
Do not swim, surf or surf-ski at night
Do not swim, surf or surf-ski near a whale stranding
If a shark has been sighted where no Shark Spotters are present, go to another beach
First-time visitors should ask law enforcement, life guards or locals about the area
Obey beach officials if told to leave the water
If kayaking deep sea, paddle in groups and stay close together (diamond formation)
Consider using a shark shield when you go surfing or kayaking
Pay attention to shark signage
If you see a white shark near people, please tell emergency services or Shark Spotters here
