NARRATOR: South Africa’s Western Cape is notoriously dangerous.
Almost one in four of all fatal great white attacks
happen here.
In other parts of the world, the most dangerous time
to enter the water is at dawn or dusk, the times when
white sharks typically hunt.
But these waters are different.
Investigators have identified that the majority
of the attacks on the Western Cape take place during the day.
This surprising anomaly could be the key to solving
the mystery behind the attacks.
Mike Barron is a marine biologist living in Cape Town.
For the past two years, he’s been
studying the oceanic ecosystems of the Western Cape.
Mike believes part of the answer lies
in an incredible aspect of South Africa’s marine ecology.
MIKE BARRON: So today, we’re going to drop down
and I’m going to monitor one of my favorite places to dive.
It’s a really amazing, magical place.
[music playing]
NARRATOR: These are South Africa’s kelp forests.
Each strand of this giant seaweed
measures up to 40 feet tall and grows in dense clusters
stretching over 600 miles, Creating
a vast, underwater wonderland.
MIKE BARRON: All the different complexities
of life down there, and it’s a fantastic
area to dive and research.
NARRATOR: The kelp forests are home
to all manner of oceanic life.
But there is one species that lives here
of particular significance when it comes
to sharks, cape fur seals.
MIKE BARRON: White sharks are often
seen patrolling the edges of kelp forests
looking for the cape fur seal.
NARRATOR: Until recently, it was believed that great whites
patrolled the edges of the kelp forests at dawn and dusk,
but rarely ventured in.
The sun’s low position in the sky
was thought to help them pick out
the silhouettes of unsuspecting seals
as they exited the forest.
But in 2019, a study emerged that turned
traditional thinking about great whites’ hunting patterns
on its head.
MIKE BARRON: In 2019, researchers were conducting
a study on great white sharks.
They attached some cameras to the dorsal fins,
and the footage that came back was very unusual.
That actually found that these sharks were moving into quite
dense forest areas, and even hunting
seals, which previously we thought
was not happening at all.
NARRATOR: And most importantly, the sharks
were seen to be hunting during the day,
not just at dawn and dusk.
MIKE BARRON: This new revelation in shark research
means that all the way through today, wherever there’s kelp,
there’s potentially white sharks cruising
around, looking for their seal.
NARRATOR: South Africa is one of a few countries
in the world that has natural kelp
forests right on its coast.
MIKE BARRON: Kelp grows all along the beaches
here in the Western Cape, right from the intertidal zone
and very highly populated beaches as well.
There’s lots of people swimming, surfing,
and diving in the forests right along the coast.
NARRATOR: This means that every day at any time, the sharks
are patrolling the coastline of the Western Cape,
looking for seals, in the exact same waters used by people.
