There is currently an opportunity to attach a Crittercam to various great white sharks in the inshore area of False Bay through a collaboration between the Save Our Seas Shark Centre, National Geographic Society and the City of Cape Town.

Specific focus will be given to attempting to attach the crittercam to a white shark in Fish Hoek bay as this will provide a significant opportunity to further our understanding of why these sharks use this area in particular during the summer season.  This is especially pertinent at this time as the Shark Spotters have recorded 13 shark sightings in this area over the last six days. If successful, information from the crittercam will be particularly important to better understand why Clovelly Corner and Sunny Cove are areas of high activity during the summer months. 

Crittercams have successfully been deployed 29 times at Seal Island, False Bay and interesting behavior on white shark hunting and social behaviour has already been collected. We know that sharks are primarily around the seal colony to predate on the Cape fur seals and aggregate in the area from May to September. The research programme has identified through tagging that the sharks display a seasonal shift in habitat use during summer, spending more time closer to shore.

The Shark Spotting Programme has recorded 765 shark sightings between November 2004 and September 2010, almost all during the summer months. However, we have a limited understanding of what they are doing inshore and as a consequence would like to attach the Crittercams to sharks during summer in these areas to learn more about what they do there.

In Fish Hoek there are additional questions we would like to answer, due to the area being the location of two fatal shark attacks, and many more interactions with surfskiiers and kayaks. Are the sharks hunting fish or other prey in the area? How are the sharks using the area? Are they swimming near the bottom? The Crittercam has the potential of providing us with novel information on their behavior in these areas.

The Crittercam is on loan from the National Geographic Society for the period November 2010 to end of February 2011 and as such the Save Our Seas Shark Centre, the City and the National Geographic Society will work together to try and successfully attach the Crittercam on sharks in Fish Hoek bay as well as off remote coastal areas around Macassar, Wolfgat and Strandfontein.

For the full press release please click here.

This is a very exciting time for us so please check back again soon for updates on whether we get it right!