The City of Cape Town, along with the Shark Spotting Programme – our partner in shark safety, education and research, have for the last 18 months been monitoring the now complete disappearance of great white sharks from False Bay.
The Shark Spotters applied research programme has been monitoring white shark activity and behavioural ecology in False Bay since 2004.
Between 2010 and 2016, spotters recorded an average of 205 white shark sightings per year at their operating beaches during the spring and summer period.
However, in 2018 the total number of shark sightings recorded fell to only 50, and this year there has not been a single confirmed white shark sighting by the spotters. Neither has the Shark Spotters applied research programme detected any of the tagged white sharks on their tracking receivers since 2017.
This pattern has been mirrored at Seal Island in the middle of False Bay. Shark activity at Seal Island, historically an important feeding ground for white sharks during the winter period, has plummeted.
The shark cage diving eco-tourism operators, who would normally witness multiple individual sharks visiting their vessels and up to 30 seal predations daily, have not had a single white shark sighting at Seal Island in 2019.
Further supporting evidence of the absence of these large apex predators is the lack of any feeding or bite marks on the whale carcases the City has removed from False Bay this year.
To our knowledge the absence of great white sharks from False Bay has not been recorded or reported before.
Great white sharks are top apex predators and we do not know how their absence from False Bay would impact the ecosystem. Neither do we know the causes for their disappearance.
White sharks, through the eco-tourism and documentary film making sectors, contribute significantly to Cape Town’s local economy. Despite the lack of great white shark activity our tourism operators have managed to view seven gill sharks. Gill sharks were previously not present at Seal Island, and this confirms that there are changes happening within our ecosystem.
Despite the disappearance of great white sharks from False Bay the City will still continue with the Shark Spotting Programme at the very popular beaches of:
- Fish Hoek
- Clovelly
- Kalk Bay
- Muizenberg
- Monwabisi; and
- Caves at Kogel Bay
The Fish Hoek shark exclusion barrier will also be deployed for the annual Spring Splash on 1 September 2019, over weekends, public holidays, and school holidays during October 2019, and April 2020; and daily from 1 November 2019 to 31 March 2020, weather permitting.
