Adventure Travel Guru - Profile

Where I Live

Cape Town, Western Cape

Expertise

Photography, Wildlife Tours, Nature Tours

Favorite Places

Bassas da India, District des Îles Éparses; Seal Islands, Western Cape; Cape Town, Western Cape

Occupation

Shark Experts & Wildlife Photographers

My Enlightenments

Experiences that make me a Guru

• “I don't think there is another animal on the planet that evokes so much emotion as a shark.”
  - Seal Island, Western Cape

Guru Bio

Monique and Chris Fallows are wildlife naturalists and renowned experts on marine wildlife, and especially, sharks. They have used their cage diving and wildlife experiential company Apex Predators to promote positive awareness of sharks worldwide through their Great White Shark pictures and shark expeditions. It was Chris and Monique that helped to prove the rare hunting technique of Great Whites, the ‘breaching’ of the ocean surface (imagine 1,500 pounds of shark swimming vertically at top speed and exploding through the sea’s surface at such a rate, their entire body leaves the ocean and floats in mid-air momentarily, before tidal-wave crashing into the water…hopefully with a seal now in its teeth’s grasp).

Equal parts wildlife photographer, conservationist and researcher, Chris Fallows is most famous for photographing South Africa's great white sharks breaching. Shooting sharks since 1998, Fallows and his wife Monique are active shark conservationists and recognized authorities on great white shark behavior and the Western Cape coastline of South Africa.

Monique and Chris are involved yearly in the logistical production of Discovery’s Shark Week and Chris is always one of the experts whose insights are parlayed onto the screen. As the world’s foremost experts on Shark Breaching photography, Chris’s body of work is so well known that if you have ever seen an images of a Great White leaping from the ocean surface in full attach mode, there is a good chance that photo was captured by Chris. Many of his breaching Great White Shark images have been seen worldwide in newspapers, magazines and television documentaries.

At sea over 150 days at sea every year working with a variety of shark species, the couple dedicate themselves to ensure the most natural encounter with sharks. Their extensive work in the field has helped them to understand not only the sharks, but the highly specialized environment of South Africa’s coastline that the sharks return to each year. With such a specific expertise, they have facilitated many well know shark documentaries over the years; including-

* DISCOVERY CHANNEL: Air jaws 1&2

* THE BBC: Planet Earth: Great White Shark segment

* National geographic: JAWS 25 year anniversary

* 60 minutes with Bob Simon

Monique & Chris own and operate Apex Predators, located in Cape Town, their company is focused on providing shark photography and shark diving trips.