Comments on: Fear….

By: lor

lor — Sat, 04 Dec 2004 22:06:55 +0000

absolutely! couldn’t agree more.
and yeah, to add to the other comments – the great whites off SA are the only ones that leap out of the water like that. there is apparently a deep dip in the ocean floor where the seals swim past from the island out to where they get their food. the sharks stay in this deep area and literally swim directly upwards, grabbing the seals and leaping out of the water with their speed – as was mentioned.
i’m babbling now.

By: Ingrid

Ingrid — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 08:16:43 +0000

If I recall correctly sharks generally don’t tend to eat people, they tend to bite at peoplet that they have mistaken for a seal or some other wild life and as such people loose limbs at worst. However, I believe that two weeks ago an old lady is believed to have been eaten whole while swimming out at fish hoek, not to mention the increase in Shark sitings in the area, so could it be that the old man has a point in that there is not enough food for the sharks? Should the organisations that care for our oceans possibly be looking into ways of providing for more food for these animals – ie limit fishing further – or possibly look at how many sharks we have living in the area and if its too many then consider culling?

By: DA mal

DA mal — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 10:30:13 +0000

I learned from the 6pm Sunday SABC3 wildlife show (not a series, just whatever good hour-long wildlife programme comes to hand, it seems) that South African great whites are supposed to be the only ones that do this aerial leap thing, as in your photo above. Apparently it has something to do with seal behaviour, and sharks have an easier time catching them if they shoot up from below so fast that they ‘breach’ in the manner of whales.

By: Shaun

Shaun — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 06:55:07 +0000

Strongly agreed!

By: jeff

jeff — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 05:57:55 +0000

A similar one like that great white gobbled up a swimmer in Australia several weeks ago.