REMEMBER ALL THOSE HORROR FILMS?

…They’re REAL!

Well…shark breaching isn’t EXACTLY the same

BUT IT’S PRETTY DARN CLOSE!

SHARK BREACHING IS ONE OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM’S MOST AWESOME DISPLAYS OF

POWER AND PREDATORY SKILL

•The Great White is perhaps the most feared hunter that prowls our oceans•It is has evolved to become a true apex predator•The diet of this killing machine includes fish, other sharks, whales, dolphins, seabirds and…seals

When a shark is hunting the fast moving seals, it can often pick up speeds

of 40 miles per hour. It hits its prey with such force that it can clear the surface of the water, sometimes flying as much as 10 feet into the air.

‘ ’

Seal Island is home to a population of more than 60 000 seals.

Its waters are prowled by a dozen Great Whites, making hunting plentiful.

The seals run a deadly gauntlet when they risk the open ocean to feed.

If it chooses to swim in

the murky lower

depths then it has a

far better chance of

survival.

If seals enter the Ring of Death, the area

surrounding the island where the great whites

patrol, nearer the surface, they are more likely

to fall victim to the hunt.

GO ON LITTLE GUY!

While the shark attempts to surprise its prey, the seal sometimes sees it coming.

If this is the case, it has to dodge it at the last second before it is hit with a brutal force and ferocity that usually results in an instant kill.

We find ourselves rooting for the seals but there is no doubting that this is one of mother nature’s perfect displays of terrible, predatory perfection.

VISIT: www.extremescene.co.za

Get up close and personal

• Travel with Extreme Scene to Simonstown, to the famed Seal Island

•Watch as the sharks leap majestically out of the water

There is a cage on the boat so there will be time to go

shark cage diving. Make sure to book for the peak

season of mid April through to September

Which one to visit?

Well, False Bay is rightly famous for its breaching sharks.

Yet Gansbaai is known for being the Shark Capital of the World. Tours from Extreme Scene visit Dyer Island, Geyser Rock and Shark Alley. It is certainly a popular tourist attraction in South Africa, second only to the Kruger National Park.

The focus of Gansbaai:

• The cage diving here is far more purposeful

• Tour operators will deliberately attract the sharks through ‘chumming’

• Wetsuits and diving gear are provided and you are constantly under the supervision of a diving master

• It is therefore a slightly more controlled environment than the wild unpredictability of the breaching sharks in False Bay