Adventure Guru Travel Stories

We started the month with literally an explosion of shark activity and the first half of the month was filled with all behaviour.

Daily natural predations, good breaches on the decoy and then really busy activity of sharks around the boat seeing between 8 and 15 sharks per trip in the early to mid part of the month.

For almost all guests that visit Seal Island with us their main hope and expectation is to see a breaching Great white shark. This is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular sights in all of nature…an almost one ton animal being able to launch itself completely clear of the water. But as this is hunting behaviour it only forms a small part of what the Great white shark is all about. My favourite way to see the sharks is on a glassy calm day with a shark just gently cruising around the boat.

On these days, with the sun shining giving great visibility, I believe one is able to make a very special connection with the sharks and become completely taken with these magnificent creatures. On these good days it is possible to take in all their detail and also start to learn the character of each animal.

We have noted that in general we are seeing less natural predation this season. Having said this we have still had a number of days where we have recorded 25 plus events and many with more than 10 events. The predations have varied from the sharks being deadly accurate with just the initial strike on the seal to a number of protracted events with the shark in continuous pursuit of a seal.

The sharks have also had days where they have had almost no success at all. All our notes and observations show that weather conditions seem to greatly affect the success rate. Tough when one’s life could actually depend on the weather…

Most of the attacks take place on single seals and it is not that common to see events of large groups of seals. This July we have seen more events on groups than what is normal even though the poor success rate on groups has remained the same.

Breaches on the decoy were seen on most trips in the early part of the month but after a 2 day bout of bad weather around the 23rd a large part of the activity has tailed off.

I can still clearly see a number of the breaches in my mind. For these events you just have to be looking in the right spot at the right time. Very often we will hear someone shout out in amazement and we will know that we have missed something pretty spectacular. They only breach once, so lucky for those that see it. Now the bad thing is as that these natural breaches tend to happen close to the boat there is a real possibility of a shark landing in the boat with us. This would probably be a fatal event for the shark and a good possibility of terrible injuries for us on board.

On one of our trips in July a 4 meter male did a full breach a meter from our boat and landed against the side of it. Very fortunately, the shark landed back in the water but it gave us all a big scare. We have had a guest spend the whole month with us and he was the one who was eye-ball to eye-ball with the shark…I did not see him spending too much time sitting on the gunnels of the boat after that!

We always try and impart with our guests that even though we are providing a shark experience it is to their benefit to take in the whole environment and eco-system around Seal Island. This month we have started to sight the first Southern Right whales that have migrated to False Bay from Antarctica. These sightings should start to increase in August and September. We also had one brief sighting of a school of common dolphin. Two of our highlights of the month were actually of a whale encounter and a couple of seal dives.

On a particularly bumpy and very rainy day we were drifting looking out for predations when a Brydes whale approached our boat. They are normally a shy species of whale but this individual was very curious and circled our boat for about 40 minutes. It would constantly spy-hop a few meters from us and dive to encircle the boat another time. One of the most memorable things about this encounter was just listening to the whale exhale each time it came to the surface. It was pouring with rain but I was quote happy to stand outside to make the most of this special encounter!

A number of days after this we have very calm conditions with virtually no swell. This created a unique opportunity to dive in a sheltered bay around the Island with the seals. This area was full of the young of the year seals who were very curious of the divers and really wanted to interact with them.

Testing nips become a little more than that after a while! I could see that for Chris and the guests that did this dive they really could appreciate how special it was to be able to spend time with the seals underwater and I think also created a stronger bond with the Island itself.

Once again we have had the fascinating experience of seeing a large number of natural breaches. These are normally spectacular breaches for no apparent reason. They often happen very close to the boat and Chris thinks they may either be trying to have a better look at us or are trying to communicate something. My feeling is that as these breaches often happen when we have a lot of activity around the boat this may be some sort of social reaction of sharks being too close to one another.

I can still clearly see a number of the breaches in my mind. For these events you just have to be looking in the right spot at the right time. Very often we will hear someone shout out in amazement and we will know that we have missed something pretty spectacular. They only breach once, so lucky for those that see it.

Now the bad thing is as that these natural breaches tend to happen close to the boat there is a real possibility of a shark landing in the boat with us. This would probably be a fatal event for the shark and a good possibility of terrible injuries for us on board. On one of our trips in July a 4 meter male did a full breach a meter from our boat and landed against the side of it. Very fortunately, the shark landed back in the water but it gave us all a big scare. We have had a guest spend the whole month with us and he was the one who was eye-ball to eye-ball with the shark…I did not see him spending too much time sitting on the gunnels of the boat after that!

As we do not know the reason for this kind of breaching and because there is no warning, there is not much we can do about preventing this.

-Monique Fallows

A series of Chris Fallows' iconic photos of Great White Shark breachings off the coast of South Africa.

Aired December 7, 2003 - 11:21 ET

JIM MORET, CNN ANCHOR: You're not seeing things. Say the phrase flying sharks, you might imagine a movie where Steven Spielberg meets Stephen King. But it's all very real for our next two guests, who are global experts on capturing great white sharks on film. Chris and Monique Fallows are on the telephone from Cape Town, South Africa, where it's about 6:20 in the evening. Thank you so much for joining us.

CHRIS FALLOWS, PHOTOGRAPHER: It's a pleasure, Jim. Good to be with you.

MONIQUE FALLOWS, PHOTOGRAPHER: Thanks, Jim.

MORET: Most people try to avoid sharks, and you seem to spend your life trying to find them. What is the appeal for you?

CHRIS FALLOWS: Well, quite simply, they're the most incredible animals. I don't think there is another animal on the planet that evokes so much emotion as a shark. We're lucky to be working at a site in Cape Town, South Africa, where the sharks use a hunting strategy, will actually jump out of the water. We've got to know a lot of these animals over the year and really overcome that stigma attached to them. They're not these creatures that are just out there to eat people. They're far more than that and we've fallen deeply in love with them and do everything we can to conserve them.

MORET: These photographs are incredible. Where did you capture these photos, and how long does it take when you're on a stakeout like this?

CHRIS FALLOWS: The images are captured at island of about 64,000 seals, called Seal Island, which is in Cape Town, South Africa, and we've been working with the watchdogs there for more than a decade. So it is a many, many years of work to capture the images, but you know, when you get a result like we've been fortunate enough to get, it makes it all worthwhile.

MORET: You get many images under water, as well, don't you?

CHRIS FALLOWS: We spend a lot of our time, you know, trying to interact with as many species of shark as possible. The white shark is the shark that everybody knows about. You know, there are many, many other magnificent sharks out there that we try to spend as much time with as we can.

MORET: Monique, why don't you jump in? Talk about the appeal of the sharks for you and these amazing images.

MONIQUE FALLOWS: Well, you know, Jim, before I met Chris, I actually knew nothing about sharks, and I feel that just being able to watch these sharks in their natural environment just goes to show what special animals they are. They really aren't what people think they are, and I'm very passionate about them.

MORET: You've also photographed baby seals, and we know sharks are predators and feed on these seals. I think we have some photos of some baby seals. Some of these animals are just -- here's one right now where Chris is take a photograph of what looks like an adorable baby seal, and we know this is effectively on the food chain for sharks. Do you get attached to some of the creatures that you photograph?

MONIQUE FALLOWS: Definitely, Jim. The prime targets, prey targets that the white sharks are hunting at Seal Island are those baby seals, and it is definitely not an easy event to witness. However, it is a natural event and the sharks do have to feed. Surprisingly, though, seals are very adept at getting away from sharks, and the sharks are only successful about 50 percent of the time.

MORET: The most surprising aspect, frankly, for most our viewers is seeing these sharks flying. I think that you have many more people afraid of sharks than you did before this broadcast.

Thank you so much for your time. That's Chris and Monique Fallows on the phone from Cape Town, South Africa.

CHRIS FALLOWS: Thanks very much for having us.