Seal Island, South Africa
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  | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Atlantic Ocean |
| Coordinates | 34°8′10″S 18°34′58″E / 34.13611°S 18.58278°E |
| Administration | |
South Africa | |
Seal Island (formerly known as Witte Klip, meaning "White Rock") is a small land mass located 5.7 kilometres (3.5 miles) off the northern beaches of
Cape fur seals that occupy it. It is 5 acres (2.0 hectares) in area and home to 64,000 cape fur seals.[1]
It is also home to seabirds, and it is likely that non-marine species fly there to breed as well . The island is an outcrop of Cape granite and rises no more than about 4 to 6 metres (13 to 20 feet) above the high tide mark. The island is long and narrow – 800 by 50 metres (2,620 by 160 feet). There is no vegetation, soil of any significance, or beach.
A
inscriptions made by sealers in the 1930s are still evident.[citation needed
]
Fauna
Besides the Cape fur seal, the
social interactions
amongst creatures of both species. The island has become famous for the size of the sharks, and for their favoured way of catching their prey – a shark launching an attack will come up from underneath and hurl itself out of the water with the seal in its mouth. It has been shown that if the seals enter the "Ring of Death" (where the sharks circle the island) on the surface instead of at the murky bottom, they are more likely to be picked off by the faster and more aggressive great white.
Since 2001, Seal Island, False Bay has been popularized by the Discovery Channel series Air Jaws, which features the breaching behavior of Great Whites near the island. A 2019 sequel, "Air Jaws Strikes Back" names a "second Seal Island", this time located in Mossel Bay on the southeast coast of South Africa.[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b Martin, R. Aidan; Martin, Anne (October 2006). "Sociable Killers: New studies of the white shark (aka great white) show that its social life and hunting strategies are surprisingly complex". Natural History. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
- ^ Starr, Michell (2019-11-11). "Incredible Footage Reveals Orcas Chasing Off The Ocean's Most Terrifying Predator". Science Alert. Retrieved 2019-11-24.