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Killer whales are said to have been killing sharks.
Photograph by Alastair Pollock / Getty
Orcas are suspected of being behind the disappearance of great white sharks off the coast of Cape Town in recent years, according to a report released by the government on Tuesday.
The disappearance of white sharks from False Bay and Gansbaai had previously been attributed to illegal hunting and overfishing, among other causes.
But the results of a study by a government-appointed team of nine local and international experts suggest killer whales could be to blame, after a pair was first spotted in the area in 2015.
The researchers said they “found some evidence of a causal link between the appearances of a pod of killer whales that had specialized in hunting white sharks.”
The number of white sharks in the area is unknown, but observers initially reported sharp declines in 2017, then a prolonged absence.
The remains of five great white sharks killed by Orcas were discovered in the Gansbaai area in 2017.
This year another similarly dead shark was found on a beach, and there could be many more, said a marine biologist and one of the researchers, Alison Kock, during the report’s presentation.
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