Shark sightings in Gansbaai have started again after the predators seemed to have disappeared last month.
Shark diving operators in the Cape reported having to cancel shark diving expeditions as a result of the lack of the predators in January.
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Alison Towner, Marine Biologist, Marine Dynamics Tours/Dyer Island Conservation Trust, said cage diving operators had been reporting no sightings of White sharks despite extensive attempts to find them.
However, both Charmaine Beukes, Marketing Manager for White Shark Projects and Brian McFarlane, owner of Great White Shark Tours, have seen the sharks reappear during the past few days. “We’ve had sightings this week and very good sightings yesterday as well as today,” Beukes told Tourism Update on Thursday.
“We are very confident that in the next two weeks everything will be back to normal,” said McFarlane.
According to Towner, seasonality and the ‘El Nino’ event may have caused a drop in sightings. She added that dead whales could have attracted sharks away from Gansbaai as whale carcasses had been recorded in the Western Cape in the last few weeks.
The disappearance could also be a result of a trauma-induced departure/flight response. Said Towner: “When a White shark is killed, often others in the area will pick up the bio chemical signal from the rotting carcass, which usually sinks, causing them to leave the area.” A White shark was reported to have been hit in Gansbaai by a Trans Agulhas racing boat in December while the animal was basking at the surface, she said.:
