White Shark

In less than eight years, White sharks in South Africa have all but disappeared from their historical hotspots in False Bay and Gansbaai, on the Western Cape coast. These areas were once known as the white shark capital of the world and were home to a flourishing ecotourism industry.

Recent tracking data on white sharks tell a worrying story – 18 out of 21 white sharks tagged since 2019 by the Oceans Research Institute have all but disappeared. That represented the loss of nearly 90% of the tracked white sharks in less than four years. They have not been detected moving to any other locations but have simply vanished. 

White sharks larger than 4 metres in length are rarely sighted and with the decline in mature, breeding adults it is an indication that the white shark population is not stable in South Africa – the arrival of an active Orca pod has also been blamed for the decline.

We recently facilitated a project documenting the tagging and tracking of White sharks in Mossel Bay and the survivor of a rather close encounter in False Bay