The Bafana Bafana Shark

The Save Our Seas Shark Centre in Cape Town gets into the spirit of the Football World Cup. If only Bafana Bafana had selected a couple of these guys as the defenders in their squad, they’d have had no trouble swimming into the second round. Opposition strikers would have been, well, easy meat. But while Great Whites are apex predators in the marine environment, they do not naturally target people. In fact, their undeserved reputation has seen them become an endangered species. The Save Our Seas Foundation, which has decorated this model shark outside its Cape Town headquarters with 2010 gear, is one of the conservation organisations trying to save Great Whites and other shark species, and to emphasise their critical role in the marine ecosystem.