yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Great White Shark Hunting Patterns | When Sharks Attack


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

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: 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. They 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.

More Articles

View All
The Upcoming Stock Market Collapse | Round 2
What’s up, you guys? It’s Graham here. So, you know the saying, “What goes up must come down”? Well, it’s been coming down a lot lately. And it just goes to show you that a lot can happen in a week because just a few weeks ago, the S&P 500 logged one …
Crystalline and amorphous polymers | AP Chemistry | Khan Academy
Let’s talk a little bit about crystalline and amorphous polymers. Now, in previous videos we talked about crystalline versus amorphous solids. Crystalline solids have a very regular pattern; maybe they look something like this if you imagine the particle…
Hitching a ride with the Gabra tribe's camel train | Primal Survivor: Extreme African Safari
But just as I was giving up hope, on the horizon… Thank God. Honestly. Thank God. HAZEN: There they are. I got them. It’s the camel train. (camel bellows) (man shouting) HAZEN: Yes! HAZEN: So, this is the camel train, look at how… It’s amazing. Wow, I …
Rescuing a Fierce Leopard: See What It Takes | Expedition Raw
Right 80 mg of ketamine and 4A 8 Mig of made tomine; that should do the job. Translocating an animal doesn’t happen very often; it’s a last resort for us. Me and Rudy walk up to the cage, and I’m the bait. I call his attention, so he turns his butt and gi…
Personalized Stories Starring Your Kids: Khanmigo's Craft a Story! | Bedtime stories for kids
Hi parents! Are you looking to put a fresh spin on story time, or maybe you want to make bedtime more fun, engaging, and personalized? I’ve got something you’re going to love! Meet K Migo’s “Craft a Story” feature. Let me show you how it works. First, we…
How Cod Saved the Vikings
When I was in the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway, I came across one of the strangest sights I have ever seen: cod. [♫ ominous low tone fades in ♪] Hundreds of thousands of them, strung up on racks, [♫ ominous low tone fades in ♪] their stench blanketi…